Performative

adj, noun

adj, noun ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A performative utterance.

    "The distinction between constatives and performatives is one of the distinctions that he starts questioning."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Being enacted as it is said.

    "Saying "I do" as part of a wedding ceremony is performative, enacting a marriage."

  2. 2
    Being done as a performance in order to create an impression.

    "We were beginning to suspect that her ethical qualms were sometimes performative, as the urgent need for fairness and justice seemed to apply to some people but not to others."

Synonyms

All synonyms
performatoryworklyworkly

Example

More examples

"It's entirely performative, if you ask me."

Etymology

From perform + -ative.

Related phrases

performative authoritarianismperformative utteranceperformative utterance

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