Assertive

//əˈsɝtɪv// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Boldly self-assured; confident without being aggressive.

    "Hence the ubiquity of Priapus himself as a sculptural representative of the generative principle, populated the Roman gardens, assertive in ithyphallic pose."

  2. 2
    Pungent.

    "an assertive taste or odor"

Adjective
  1. 1
    aggressively self-assured wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
emphaticpungentabsoluteaffirmativeaffirmatoryaggressive

Example

More examples

"You need to learn to be assertive."

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin assertīvus. Synchronically analyzable as assert + -ive.

Related phrases

self-assertiveself assured

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.