English Explanatory Dictionary

conservative

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person who favors maintenance of the status quo.
  2. One who seeks to promote or preserve traditional values or institutions.
  3. One who seeks to promote traditions in a particular domain (e.g. a fiscal conservative or a social conservative).
adj
  1. Cautious, moderate.
  2. Tending to resist change or innovation.
  3. Based on pessimistic assumptions, and on the low side.
  4. Supporting some combination of fiscal, political or social conservatism.
  5. Relating to the Conservative Party.
  6. Neither creating nor destroying a given quantity.
  7. Having power to preserve in a safe or entire state, or from loss, waste, or injury; preservative.
  8. Relating to Conservative Judaism.
  9. Conventional, traditional, and moderate in style and appearance; not extreme, excessive, faddish, or intense.
  10. Not including any operation or intervention (said of a treatment, see conservative treatment)
  11. Having few changes relative to an older form, especially in comparison to related varieties.
  12. That is the gradient of a function.
noun
  1. A member of a political party incorporating the word "Conservative" in its name.
  2. A member of the Conservative party.
  3. A member or supporter of the Conservative Party of Canada, or its predecessors, or provincial equivalents, or their predecessors
  4. pertaining to Conservative Judaism

Pronunciation

/kənˈsɜːvətɪv/ /kənˈzɜːvətɪv/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-conservative.wav /kənˈsɝvətɪv/ /kənsə(r)ˈveʈɪv/

Word forms

conservative conservatives more conservative most conservative

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French conservatif, from Latin cōnservō (“to preserve”). Equivalent to conserve + -ative.

Synonyms

Tory Blue

Related words

conservationist conservatism conservator conserve Labour Party liberal Republican party Tory

Derived words

cancervative liberal conservative national conservative ultraconservative neoconservative one-nation conservative anticonservative archconservative biconservative bioconservative conservaloon conservaphobia conservatard conservatarian conservatise Conservative conservative correctness conservative extension conservative force conservative-libertarianism conservatively conservative model conservativeness conservativism conservativitis conservatize conservaturd cuckservative cuntservative fiscal conservative homocon hyperconservative nonconservative overconservative paleoconservative political conservative pseudoconservative semiconservative small-c conservative social conservative superconservative technoconservative theoconservative unconservative Progressive Conservative Liberal-Conservative big-C Conservative

Translations

Armenian: պահպանողական Azerbaijani: mühafizəkar Belarusian: кансерва́тар Chinese Mandarin: 保守派 Finnish: vanhoillinen Finnish: konservatiivi French: conservateur French: conservatrice Georgian: კონსერვატორი German: Konservativer Greek: συντηρητικός Hebrew: שמרן Hebrew: שמרנית Hungarian: konzervatív Irish: coimeádach Irish: coimeádaí Italian: conservatore Italian: conservatrice Japanese: 保守派 Korean: 보수주의자 Korean: 보수파 Malay: konservatif Manx: cumaadagh Polish: konserwatywny Portuguese: conservador Romanian: conservator Romanian: conservatoare Russian: консерва́тор Spanish: conservador Swedish: konservativ Ukrainian: консерва́тор Bulgarian: консерватор
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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