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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

collective.

Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/kəˈlɛktɪv/
  1. Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body.

    not-comparable
    the collective body of a nation
  2. Tending to collect; forming a collection.

    not-comparable
  3. Having plurality of origin or authority.

    not-comparable
  4. Expressing a collection or aggregate of individuals, by a singular form.

    not-comparable
  5. Deducing consequences; reasoning; inferring.

    not-comparable · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *léǵeti Proto-Italic *legō Latin legō Latin colligō Latin collēctus Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Latin collēctīvusder. Middle French collectifder. English collective From Middle French collectif, from Latin collēctīvus, from collēctus, past participle of colligō (“to collect”), from com- (“together”) + legō (“to gather”). Compare French collectif. Doublet of colectivo.

noun/kəˈlɛktɪv/
  1. A farm owned by a collection of people.

  2. One of more farms managed and owned, through the state, by the community.

    especially
  3. A collective noun or name.

  4. A group dedicated to a particular cause or interest.

    broadly
  5. The flight control used to control a helicopter's ascent or descent.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *léǵeti Proto-Italic *legō Latin legō Latin colligō Latin collēctus Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Latin collēctīvusder. Middle French collectifder. English collective From Middle French collectif, from Latin collēctīvus, from collēctus, past participle of colligō (“to collect”), from com- (“together”) + legō (“to gather”). Compare French collectif. Doublet of colectivo.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.