English Explanatory Dictionary

possessive

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Of or pertaining to ownership or possession.
  2. Indicating ownership, possession, origin, etc.
  3. Unwilling to yield possession of.
noun
  1. The possessive case.
  2. A word used to indicate the possessive case.

Pronunciation

pə-zĕs′ĭv /pəˈzɛs.ɪv/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-possessive.wav /pəˈzes.ɪv/ /pəˈzes.əv/ /poˈzɛs.ɪv/

Word forms

possessive more possessive most possessive possessives

Etymology

From Middle French possessif, from Latin possessivus (“of or pertaining to possession”), from possessiō (“possessing”), from possidēre (“to possess”). By surface analysis, possess + -ive.

Related words

possessive pronoun possessive adjective possessive determiner possessive suffix comitative genitive ktetic proprietive proprietary proprietorial

Derived words

nonpossessive overpossessive possessival possessivity unpossessive double possessive independent possessive possessively possessiveness

Translations

Māori: kupu whiwhinga Māori: pūriro Māori: rirohanga
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on P Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary