Corrective
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Something that corrects or counteracts something.
"alkalies are correctives of acids"
- 2 a device for treating injury or disease wordnet
- 3 Limitation; restriction. obsolete
"What Correctives there may be supposed that may check and restrain that Increase of Mankind, that otherwise according to the ordinary course of Nature would have obtained in the World."
- 1 Of or pertaining to correction; serving to correct. not-comparable
"As the currents were changing rapidly, the captain had to make many corrective course changes."
- 2 Qualifying; limiting. not-comparable, obsolete
"The Psalmist interposeth a caution in this corrective particle, Yea, Happy. It hath the force of a revocation, whereby he seems to retract what went before, not simply and absolutely, but in a certain degree […]"
- 1 tending or intended to correct or counteract or restore to a normal condition wordnet
- 2 designed to promote discipline wordnet
Example
More examples"We must apply corrective measures."
Etymology
Borrowed from French correctif, equivalent to correct + -ive.
Related phrases
More for "corrective"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.