imperative

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj

Essential; crucial; extremely important.
Of, or relating to the imperative mood.
Having semantics that incorporates mutable variables.
Expressing a command; authoritatively or absolutely directive.

noun

The grammatical mood expressing an order (see jussive). In English, the imperative form of a verb is the same as that of the bare infinitive.
A verb in the imperative mood.
An essential action, a must: something which is imperative.

Pronunciation

/ɪmˈpɛɹ.ə.tɪv/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-imperative.wav [ɪmˈpɛɹ.ə.ɾɪv] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-imperative.wav /ɪmˈpeɹ.ə.tɪv/ [ɪmˈpeɹ.ə.ɾɪv]

Word forms

imperative more imperative most imperative imp. imper. imperatives

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin imperātīvus.

Synonyms

required imperative mood

Antonyms

functional

Related words

jussive volitive

Derived words

imperatival imperative language imperative mandate imperativeness imperative programming imperativist nonimperative postimperative unimperative whimperative biological imperative categorical imperative compound imperative first imperative hypothetical imperative moral imperative second imperative

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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