Go to 'thermo-' entry Go to 'dino-' entry Go to 'chondro-' entry Go to 'aero-' entry Go to '-logy' entry Go to 'thaumato-' entry Go to 'nano-' entry Go to '-sophy' entry Go to 'bucco-' entry Go to '-ism' entry Go to '-lysis' entry Go to 'galacto-' entry Go to '-anthropy' entry Go to 'pneumo-' entry Go to '-ploitation' entry Go to '-lithic' entry Go to '-sepalous' entry Go to 'onco-' entry Go to '-parous' entry Go to 'dermato-' entry Go to 'multi-' entry Go to 'dodeca-' entry Go to '-zoon' entry Go to 'vermi-' entry Go to 'crystallo-' entry Go to 'biblio-' entry Go to 'eco-' entry Go to 'juxta-' entry Go to 'facio-' entry
Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-ative

Characteristic or predisposed.

[From French -atif, -ative or Latin -ativus. ]

Examples are often adjectives: appreciative, decorative, innovative, speculative, talkative, and vituperative. Others can equally well be nouns: formative, laxative, purgative, superlative. A few longer adjectives formed from nouns ending in t can lose the -at- element through a process called syncopation; for example interpretative can appear as interpretive and preventive is sometimes preferred to preventative. See also -ive.

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