Possessive

//pəˈzɛs.ɪv// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The possessive case. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the case expressing ownership wordnet
  3. 3
    A word used to indicate the possessive case. countable, uncountable

    "Take the rule about pronouns and possessives that Mr. Keegan cited in his challenge to the testing service."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to ownership or possession.
  2. 2
    Indicating ownership, possession, origin, etc.
  3. 3
    Unwilling to yield possession of.

    "He is very possessive of his car."

Adjective
  1. 1
    desirous of owning wordnet
  2. 2
    having or showing a desire to control or dominate wordnet
  3. 3
    serving to express or indicate possession wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
acquisitiveambitious for selfautisticcareeristcontrollingcovetous

Example

More examples

"The relative pronoun 'that' has two states, a nominative case and objective case, but there is no possessive case."

Etymology

From Middle French possessif, from Latin possessivus (“of or pertaining to possession”), from possessiō (“possessing”), from possidēre (“to possess”). By surface analysis, possess + -ive.

Related phrases

double possessiveindependent possessivepossessive adjectivepossessive casepossessive determinerpossessive pronounpossessive suffix

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