purposive.
Serving a particular purpose; useful; adapted to a given purpose, especially through natural evolution.
Meaning & usage
Serving a particular purpose; useful; adapted to a given purpose, especially through natural evolution.
Done or performed with a conscious purpose or intent.
Most human activity is purposive.
Pertaining to purpose, as reflected in behaviour or mental activity.
Pertaining to or demonstrating purpose.
Possessed of a firm purpose.
I had a purposive air about me that night.
Of a clause or conjunction: expressing purpose.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Middle English purpos English purpose Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Old French -ifbor. Middle English -yf English -ive English purposive From purpose + -ive. Compare purpositive.
A mood indicating a purpose of the course of activity expressed by the verb.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Middle English purpos English purpose Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Old French -ifbor. Middle English -yf English -ive English purposive From purpose + -ive. Compare purpositive.
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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.