redemptive

[ ri-demp-tiv ]

adjective

1. serving to redeem.
2. of, relating to, or centering on redemption or salvation:

   redemptive religions.

Other Words From

• re·demptive·ly adverb
• nonre·demptive adjective
• unre·demptive adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of redemptive¹

First recorded in 1640–50; redempt(ion) + -ive

Example Sentences

Obama occupies the brightest spot in Rhodes’s assessment of America’s vices and virtues, the redemptive figure who manages to recognize the nation’s flaws while still seeing its beauty and potential for good.

From Washington Post

Reading scripture as God’s telling redemptive work in the world allows us to critique parts of our nation and history that don’t necessarily reflect that honoring of human life.

From Washington Post

After a year off, after a regular season of fits and crises, the NCAA basketball tournaments are back as the craziest, messiest and most redemptive version of themselves.

From Washington Post

He plays the part well, giving the flawed character a believable redemptive arc.

From Washington Post

Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

From Time

I think the entire process of the Watergate investigation of 1973 and 1974 was actually a very redemptive one for the republic.

From The Daily Beast

The power of his story is not only redemptive, but regenerative too.

From The Daily Beast

What Dr. King said to us was that unmerited suffering was always redemptive.

From The Daily Beast

It is not about the redemptive power of violence, but the redemptive power of the media.

From The Daily Beast

That night we all shared in the sweetness of his redemptive victory.

From The Daily Beast

It took the moral degradation of the city to rouse the churches to activity as redemptive civic powers.

From Project Gutenberg

This is regarded as the last stage in a moral process, a redemptive purpose of God.

From Project Gutenberg

The agreement in these two redemptive lives leads to the same conclusion.

From Project Gutenberg

He had failed to perceive the redemptive character of the feast, he had turned it into an occasion for profane personal display.

From Project Gutenberg

The speakers confess, that they know that the Servant's suffering was both vicarious and redemptive.

From Project Gutenberg