formative
Plural: formatives
Noun
- minimal language unit that has a syntactic (or morphological) function
- A thing which causes formation to occur.
- A language unit, typically a morph, that has a morphological function (that is, forming a word from a root or another word).
- Synonym of derivative (“a word that derives from another one”).
Adjective Satellite
- capable of forming new cells and tissues
- "a formative zone in developing bone"
- forming or capable of forming or molding or fashioning
- "a formative influence"
- "a formative experience"
Adj
- Capable of forming something.
- Capable of producing new tissue.
- Capable of forming something.
- Pertaining to the formation of words; specifically, of an affix: forming words through inflection.
- Capable of forming something.
- Of or pertaining to the formation and subsequent growth of something.
- Of a form of assessment: used to guide learning rather than to quantify educational outcomes.
Examples
- My formative years were spent in an inner city.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English formatyve, formatif (“having the ability to form”), from Old French formatif, formative (modern French formatif), from Medieval Latin formātīvus, from Latin fōrmātus + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘doing’ or ‘related to doing’). Fōrmātus is the perfect passive participle of fōrmō (“to form, to shape”), from fōrma (“a form, shape”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “a form, shape”) (see further at that entry). By surface analysis, form + -ative.
Synonyms
plastic, shaping, creant, derivative, descendant, formans, formant, poietic, reflex
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 17
formative: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordformative: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
formative: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary