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-ative

American  

  1. a combination of -ate and -ive, used to form adjectives from stems in -ate1 (regulative ); on this model, because of the frequency and productivity of -ate, used independently to form adjectives from stems of other origin.

    normative.
-ative British  

suffix

  1. of, relating to, or tending to

    authoritative

    decorative

    informative
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of -ative

< Latin -ātīvus, equivalent to -āt ( us ) -ate 1 + -īvus -ive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.