Denominative
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A word, often a verb, that is derived from a noun or adjective.
- 1 Being a name. not-comparable
"From the fact that this was the most noticeable feature in their costume, the name came naturally to be the denominative term of the tribe."
- 2 Possessing, or capable of possessing, a distinct denomination or designation; denominable. not-comparable
"The least denominative part of time is a second."
- 3 Deriving from a noun, or from an adjective, such as the verb destruct from the noun destruction. not-comparable
Example
More examples"From the fact that this was the most noticeable feature in their costume, the name came naturally to be the denominative term of the tribe."
Etymology
From Late Latin dēnōminātīvus, a calque of Ancient Greek παρώνυμος (parṓnumos, “derivative”). It originally had the meaning “derived”, but in its grammatical sense, it has developed the meaning “from a noun”, perhaps a reinterpretation of the Latin morphemes that it consists of: the preposition dē (“from”) and the stem of nōmen (“name, noun”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.