adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A speech act by which a commitment is made, such as a promise or threat.

Adjective

1. 1
   By commission; resulting from a positive act.

   "This error was commissive rather than omissive."

2. 2
   Making a commitment, such as a promise or threat, by illocutionary means.

   ""I will kill you if you do that" is a commissive statement."

Example

More examples

"This error was commissive rather than omissive."

Related phrases

commissive moodspeech act

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