Purposeful

//ˈpɜː.pəs.fəl// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having purpose: having intention or meaning; intentional.

    "[…] particular improvements in the teacher's stimulation and direction of the purposeful activities of children. It indicates, in this particular, growth of the teacher in guiding the purposeful activities of boys and girls. The purposes, in brief, are : 1. Primary purpose: to enable the teacher to grow continuously in stimulating and directing the purposeful activities of boys and girls. 2. Secondary purpose: to reveal teaching difficulties […]"

  2. 2
    Having a purpose in mind; resolute; determined, full of determination.

    "An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder strikes in the last two minutes from Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner. Before that, England had utterly dominated to take another purposeful stride towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have already established a five-point buffer at the top of Group Eight."

Adjective
  1. 1
    having meaning through having an aim wordnet
  2. 2
    serving as or indicating the existence of a purpose or goal wordnet

Example

More examples

"Tom went about his job with a purposeful intent."

Etymology

From purpose + -ful.

Related phrases

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