formative

[ fawr-muh-tiv ]
See synonyms for formative on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. giving form or shape; forming; shaping; fashioning; molding: a formative process in manufacturing.

  2. relating to formation or development: a child's most formative years.

  1. Biology.

    • capable of developing new cells or tissue by cell division and differentiation: formative tissue.

    • concerned with the formation of an embryo, organ, or the like.

  2. Education. continuous and diagnostic, and covering specifically the current material with which the student is actively engaged; ongoing: formative assessment;formative evaluation;formative feedback.: Compare summative (def. 2).

  3. Grammar. relating to a formative, an affix that indicates the part of speech of a derived word.

noun
  1. Grammar. a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word, as -ness, in loudness, hardness, etc.

  2. Linguistics. (in generative grammar) any element, as a word, affix, or inflectional ending, functioning as a minimal syntactic unit that can be used in forming larger constructions.

Origin of formative

1
First recorded in 1480–90; from Old French formatif (masculine), formative (feminine); see formation, -ive

Other words for formative

Other words from formative

  • form·a·tive·ly, adverb
  • form·a·tive·ness, noun
  • non·form·a·tive, adjective
  • non·form·a·tive·ly, adverb
  • sub·form·a·tive, adjective
  • sub·form·a·tive·ly, adverb
  • sub·form·a·tive·ness, noun
  • un·form·a·tive, adjective

Words that may be confused with formative

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for formative

formative

/ (ˈfɔːmətɪv) /


adjective
  1. of or relating to formation, development, or growth: formative years

  2. shaping; moulding: a formative experience

  1. (of tissues and cells in certain parts of an organism) capable of growth and differentiation

  2. functioning in the formation of derived, inflected, or compound words

noun
  1. an inflectional or derivational affix

  2. (in generative grammar) any of the minimum units of a sentence that have syntactic function

Derived forms of formative

  • formatively, adverb
  • formativeness, noun

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