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partitive

Meaning of "partitive" in the English dictionary

DICTIONARY

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD PARTITIVE

From Medieval Latin partītīvus serving to divide, from Latin partīre to divide.

Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.

PRONUNCIATION OF PARTITIVE

ˈpɑːtɪtɪv


GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF PARTITIVE

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Partitive can act as a noun and an adjective.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

The adjective is the word that accompanies the noun to determine or qualify it.

WHAT DOES PARTITIVE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Partitive

In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that indicates partialness. Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either set partitives or entity partitives based on the quantifier and the type of embedded noun used. Partitives should not be confused with quantitatives, which often look similar in form, but behave differently syntactically and have a distinct meaning. In many Romance and Germanic languages, nominal partitives usually take the form: [DP Det. + of + [DP Det. + NP]][1] where the first determiner is a quantifier word, using a prepositional element to link it to the larger set or whole from which that quantity is partitioned. The partitive constructions of the following languages all have the same translation, with a very similar form: Some languages, for example Estonian and Finnish, have a special partitive case. In Latin, German and Russian, the partitive is expressed by the genitive case, sometimes called the genitive partitive.[2]...

Definition of partitive in the English dictionary

The first definition of partitive in the dictionary is indicating that a noun involved in a construction refers only to a part or fraction of what it otherwise refers to. The phrase some of the butter is a partitive construction; in some inflected languages it would be translated by the genitive case of the noun. Other definition of partitive is serving to separate or divide into parts. Partitive is also a partitive linguistic element or feature.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH PARTITIVE

anticompetitive · appetitive · cognitive · competitive · creative · definitive · deglutitive · factitive · innovative · intuitive · native · noncompetitive · positive · precompetitive · primitive · quantitive · repetitive · sensitive · totitive · uncompetitive

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE PARTITIVE

particulates · partied · partier · parties · parting · parting shot · parting strip · partisan · partisanly · partisanship · partita · partite · partition · partition coefficient · partitioner · partitionist · partitionment · partitively · partizan · partizanship

WORDS THAT END LIKE PARTITIVE

active · aperitive · auditive · capacitive · case-sensitive · false positive · fugitive · Gram-positive · HIV-positive · infinitive · inquisitive · insensitive · intransitive · nutritive · price-sensitive · prohibitive · punitive · seropositive · time-sensitive · touch-sensitive · transitive

Synonyms and antonyms of partitive in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «partitive» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR

TRANSLATION OF PARTITIVE

Find out the translation of partitive to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

The translations of partitive from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «partitive» in English.
zh

Translator English - Chinese

等分
1,325 millions of speakers
es

Translator English - Spanish

partitivo
570 millions of speakers
en

English

partitive
510 millions of speakers
hi

Translator English - Hindi

partitive
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

partitive
280 millions of speakers
ru

Translator English - Russian

партитив
278 millions of speakers
pt

Translator English - Portuguese

partitivo
270 millions of speakers
bn

Translator English - Bengali

বিয়োজক
260 millions of speakers
fr

Translator English - French

partitif
220 millions of speakers
ms

Translator English - Malay

Partitif
190 millions of speakers
de

Translator English - German

partitiv
180 millions of speakers
ja

Translator English - Japanese

partitive
130 millions of speakers
ko

Translator English - Korean

partitive
85 millions of speakers
jv

Translator English - Javanese

Partitif
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

bộ phận
80 millions of speakers
ta

Translator English - Tamil

தனித் தனியாக, பகுதி பகுதிகளாகப் பிரிக்க உதவுகிற
75 millions of speakers
mr

Translator English - Marathi

आंशिक
75 millions of speakers
tr

Translator English - Turkish

bir parçayı belirten
70 millions of speakers
it

Translator English - Italian

partitivo
65 millions of speakers
pl

Translator English - Polish

Partitivus
50 millions of speakers
uk

Translator English - Ukrainian

Партита
40 millions of speakers
ro

Translator English - Romanian

partitiv
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

μεριστικός
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

partitiewe
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

partitiv
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

partitiv
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of partitive

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «PARTITIVE»

Principal search tendencies and common uses of partitive
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «partitive».

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about partitive

EXAMPLES

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «PARTITIVE»

Discover the use of partitive in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to partitive and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Partitive Structures
Natural languages have various ways of referring to a part of an entity denoted by a nominal phrase.
Keun Young Shin, 2007
2
Cognitive English Grammar
6.1.2 Non-partitive quantification versus partitive quantification In our discussion of set quantification as in most books we saw that the quantity of the subset is profiled, while that of the full set, of which it forms a part, is left implicit: we know, ...
Günter Radden, René Dirven, 2007
3
The Everything French Grammar Book
Partitive Articles The French partitive article corresponds to “some” or “any” in English. There are four forms of the French partitive article: du, de la, de l', and des. Note that, like the definite article, the partitive article has four forms, and the one ...
Laura K. Lawless, 2006
4
The Teacher's Grammar of English with Answers: A Course Book ...
The count noun in a partitive expression (e.g., loaf,piece, cup, liter) denotes a unit by which a following head noun can be counted. We may therefore consider partitives to be a kind of quantifier. Partitives are listed in the postdeterminer column ...
Ron Cowan, 2008
5
English Syntax
(64) NP Quant CNP Quant CN CNP CN Quant some + thing some + one 5.2 PARTITIVE NOUN PHRASES CNP CN no + body In this section, we examine partitive noun phrases — special noun-phrase constructions in which o/phrases play a ...
Carl Lee Baker, 1995
6
Thinking: Psychological Perspectives on Reasoning, Judgment ...
EXPERIMENT—The Diploma Problem and the Diagnoses Problem To test further the partitive hypothesis, we formulated (Macchi, 2000) the following problem: Diploma Problem Some 360 out of every 1000 students who sit their high-school ...
David Hardman, Laura Macchi, 2004
7
Providing a Foundation for Teaching Mathematics in the ...
Likewise, 24 + 8 might be thought of in two different ways: as the number of 8s that are in 24 (quotitive or measurement division or repeated subtraction), or as the number in each set when 24 objects are distributed over 8 sets (partitive or ...
Judith T. Sowder, Bonnie P. Schappelle, 1995
8
Semantics: Generalized quantifiers and scope
Introduction In this paper I will be concerned with the phrase-internal semantics of English partitive noun phrases like some of those books. These NPs are of the form Determiner + of + Definite NP and have been subjected to detailed syntactic  ...
Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach, 2003
9
Oneida-English/English Oneida Dictionary
And n- partitive, and secondary habitual: tsi7 niwAhnisle-su-se7 the days are really long. With -hah-/ -h-/-wah- road, path: yohdhes it's a long road. With -holo't- cylinder, pipe: kaholo-tes it's a long pipe. With -hsin- leg, na'te- partitive and dualic, ...
Karin Michelson, Mercy Doxtator, 2002
10
Experimental Studies in Linguistics
In the analyses of Franks & Dziwirek (1993), Brown & Franks (1995), Neidle ( 1988) based on Pesetzky (1982) partitive case is assigned by a null quantifier which must be licensed like other null elements in syntax, i.e. a verb which allows a ...
Susann Fischer, Ruben Florentius Hendricus Eduardus van de Vijver, 2004

9 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «PARTITIVE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term partitive is used in the context of the following news items.
1
New Lumia, Net neutrality & more...
Interesting tidbit: The Lumia name is derived from the partitive plural form of the word 'lumi', which means 'snow' in the Finnish language. «Free press journal, May 15»
2
English in K to 12
... or expressions with genus-species (hyponymous) relations in a selection, identifies words or expressions with part-whole (partitive) relations, ... «Philippine Star, Mar 15»
3
Jesus, the Whip, and Justifying Violence
It is also often used, when it follows a plural noun, as a partitive appositive, meaning it is used like a further adjective to break down the ... «Patheos, Mar 15»
4
Is WAEC still using typewriters?
The word equipment just as any other uncountable noun can only be pluralized by using a partitive—2 pieces of equipment and not 2 ... «GhanaWeb, Apr 14»
5
Leisure Suit Larry Shows Up In Tax Court Decision
But for want of better subject for a rant, I again deplore Judge Holmes' war on the partitive genitive: c'mon Judge, a Harvard Law graduate ... «Forbes, May 13»
6
The Bat Segundo Show: Anne Enright
In this 30 minute radio interview, Booker Prize winner Anne Enright discusses The Forgotten Waltz, bawdy anatomical description, faux partitive ... «Reluctant Habits, Oct 11»
7
Body and Spirit
... quotes from the New Testament scholar James Dunn, who distinguished two accounts of human nature, the “aspective” and the “partitive. «New York Times, Mar 11»
8
Collective nouns and agreement
When it is in a “partitive structure”, it just means that it is linked by “of” to a plural noun (or noun phrase) or a plural pronoun. Let me write the ... «Malaysia Star, Feb 11»
9
Marie Reed Elementary Embraces Japanese 'Lesson Study'
They chat at the copy machine about partitive division. Bethel called Gomez after 10 p.m. last week to talk about multiplication arrays. «Washington Post, Oct 09»
REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Partitive [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/partitive>. Jun 2026 ».
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