Facultative

//ˈfæ.kəl.tə.tɪv// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or relating to faculty, especially to mental faculty.
  2. 2
    Not obligate; optional, discretionary or elective.

    "But does the penny fare end here, said Mr. Nixon, at a merely facultative stop? Surely it ends rather at the station."

  3. 3
    That grants permission or power to do something.
  4. 4
    Able to perform a particular life function, or to live generally, in more than one way.

    "facultative feeder"

  5. 5
    At which a given function is positive.

    "For then it is seen, as before, that it is the points outside the two sheets which are facultative, and not the points between the surface and the touching plane."

Adjective
  1. 1
    optional wordnet
  2. 2
    granting a privilege or permission or power to do or not do something wordnet
  3. 3
    able to exist under more than one set of conditions wordnet
  4. 4
    of or relating to the mental faculties wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
optionaldiscretionaryelectiveelectiveenablingfree

Example

More examples

"But does the penny fare end here, said Mr. Nixon, at a merely facultative stop? Surely it ends rather at the station."

Etymology

From French facultatif. By surface analysis, faculty + -ative.

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