participatory

American  

[pahr-tis-uh-puh-tawr-ee] / ˌpɑrˈtɪs ə pəˌtɔr i /

adjective

1. characterized by or involving participation.

2. offering the opportunity for participation by members of the public.

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Explanation

If something is participatory, it allows or requires you to participate, or join in. In high school, classes are participatory: they require you to join in by doing your homework and taking part in discussions. Education research shows that participatory lessons, or lessons in which the students participate in their own learning, are more effective than direct instruction. For example, a participatory activity in which students take a classroom poll of favorite fruits and analyze what percentages of the class like which kinds is much more likely to stick with them than a non-participatory lecture on percentage.

Example Sentences

Chomsky also advocated so-called anarcho-syndicalism, a political and economic philosophy that envisions decentralized, participatory organizations and that still echoes with what crypto promises to bring, Allaire said.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 14, 2025

It is the rare participatory process where everyday people, even children, can physically participate in designing the place where they live.

From Slate • Sep. 3, 2025

"Their communication remains very top-down without any real interaction - comments ignored or deleted, a lack of personalised responses... This gives the impression of a strategy that is more cosmetic than participatory."

From BBC • Jul. 19, 2025

And part of what people are thinking about is participatory observation, where public health officials actually work alongside communities.

From Salon • May 8, 2025

Divided labor, while affecting the integrity of those becoming only an instance of the work process, is participatory, in the sense that its results are related to the performance of each participant in the process.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai