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I admire the world of the books and the characters that she's created, but I'm not an addict of Harry Potter. I don't feel possessive about it.
Ralph Fiennes

Meaning of "possessive" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

PRONUNCIATION OF POSSESSIVE

possessive  [pəˈzɛsɪv] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF POSSESSIVE

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Possessive 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 POSSESSIVE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Possessive

A possessive form is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. In English, possession is in fact expressed in only about 40 percent of the situations labeled as "possessive" by some linguists, which is why many consider the term incorrect and misleading and instead prefer others, especially the more traditional term "genitive". Possessive forms that occur with a noun and indicate the possessor of the referent of that noun, thus serving as determiners or adjectives, are called possessive determiners or possessive adjectives. Examples include the English words my and Jane's as used in the phrases my friends and Jane's work. Possessive forms that indicate the possessor of something but occur independently, without qualifying a noun, are called possessive pronouns. Examples in English include the words mine and yours as in mine is red and I prefer yours. Forms such as Jane's in I prefer Jane's perform the same function, though they are more rarely described as possessive pronouns, being derived from nouns.

Definition of possessive in the English dictionary

The first definition of possessive in the dictionary is of or relating to possession or ownership. Other definition of possessive is having or showing an excessive desire to possess, control, or dominate. Possessive is also denoting an inflected form of a noun or pronoun used to convey the idea of possession, association, etc, as my or Harry's.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH POSSESSIVE


adessive
əˈdɛsɪv
aggressive
əˈɡrɛsɪv
compressive
kəmˈprɛsɪv
depressive
dɪˈprɛsɪv
essive
ˈɛsɪv
excessive
ɪkˈsɛsɪv
expressive
ɪkˈsprɛsɪv
immunosuppressive
ˌɪmjʊnəʊsəˈprɛsɪv
impressive
ɪmˈprɛsɪv
inessive
ɪnˈɛsɪv
inexpressive
ˌɪnɪkˈsprɛsɪv
obsessive
əbˈsɛsɪv
oppressive
əˈprɛsɪv
progressive
prəˈɡrɛsɪv
recessive
rɪˈsɛsɪv
regressive
rɪˈɡrɛsɪv
repressive
rɪˈprɛsɪv
retrogressive
ˌrɛtrəʊˈɡrɛsɪv
successive
səkˈsɛsɪv
suppressive
səˈprɛsɪv

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE POSSESSIVE

possess
possessable
possessed
possessedly
possessedness
possession
possession order
possessional
possessionary
possessionate
possessionless
possessions
possessive adjective
possessive pronoun
possessively
possessiveness
possessor
possessorship
possessory
posset

WORDS THAT END LIKE POSSESSIVE

abessive
antitussive
comprehensive
concussive
decompressive
degressive
digressive
dismissive
emissive
impassive
manic-depressive
massive
missive
passive
passive-aggressive
percussive
permissive
submissive
supermassive
transgressive
transmissive

Synonyms and antonyms of possessive in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

SYNONYMS OF «POSSESSIVE»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «possessive» and belong to the same grammatical category.
synonyms of possessive

Translation of «possessive» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF POSSESSIVE

Find out the translation of possessive to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of possessive from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «possessive» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

> 独占欲强的
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

posesivo
570 millions of speakers

English

possessive
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

अधिकार
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

تملكي
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

притяжательные
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

possessivo
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

সম্বন্ধসূচক
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

possessif
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Bersemangat
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

besitzergreifend
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

独占欲の強い
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

> 소유하려고 하는
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Nduweni
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

thuộc về chiếm hửu
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

உடைமையாக்க
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

मालकीचे
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

iyelik
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

possessivo
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

zaborczy
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

присвійні
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

posesiv
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

κτητική
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

besitlik
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

possessiva
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

eiendomspronomen
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of possessive

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «POSSESSIVE»

The term «possessive» is quite widely used and occupies the 42.918 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
80
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «possessive» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of possessive
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «possessive».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «POSSESSIVE» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «possessive» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «possessive» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

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

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «POSSESSIVE»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word possessive.
1
Marisa Berenson
A lot of men are very possessive and they want to control you. But as you grow older, you attract people who are on your wavelength and who understand who you are.
2
Van Wyck Brooks
The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses.
3
Gary Busey
I'm not jealous, and I'm not possessive, and I'm not controlling.
4
E. L. Doctorow
I discovered Einstein said the same thing about his celebrated theories of relativity that writers say about their work when he said he didn't have any feelings of personal possession of these ideas. Once they were out there, they came from somewhere else. And that's exactly the feeling when you write. You don't feel possessive about it.
5
Ralph Fiennes
I admire the world of the books and the characters that she's created, but I'm not an addict of Harry Potter. I don't feel possessive about it.
6
Kinky Friedman
Remember: Y'all is singular. All y'all is plural. All y'all's is plural possessive.
7
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Film is not like a book; it's not a writer's baby at all. So many people have put in their talent, by that time that you feel grateful for what they've done, you don't feel possessive about it in any way.
8
Shekhar Kapur
I am not possessive at all. In every relationship I have had, the girl has left me. And the fundamental complaint has been that I am self-contained. I am just comfortable with myself and am always on an adventure.
9
Anurag Kashyap
I'm very emotional and possessive about all my films.
10
Salman Khan
I'm not possessive, I'm caring... Once you realize a person doesn't want that much care, you automatically back off.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «POSSESSIVE»

Discover the use of possessive in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to possessive and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People ...
In this unflinching look at white supremacy, George Lipsitz argues that racism is a matter of interests as well as attitudes, a problem of property as well as pigment.
George Lipsitz, 2009
2
The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to ...
Originally published: Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962.
C. B. Macpherson, 2011
3
Ben Jonson and Possessive Authorship
In this 2002 book, Ben Jonson is viewed within the context of the history of authorship and intellectual property.
Joseph Loewenstein, 2002
4
Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel
Eva Trammel, plagued by her own insecurities, is drawn into an intense, obssessive relationship with the wealthy and arrogant Gideon Cross.
Sylvia Day, 2012
5
Beautiful Disaster: A Novel
The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl.
Jamie McGuire, 2012
6
Old Russian Possessive Constructions: A Construction Grammar ...
This book is a detailed study of the possessive semantic space within the framework of construction grammar.
Hanne Martine Eckhoff, 2011
7
Possessive Descriptions
Taking work of Abney, May, and Heim as a starting point, this book develops a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of possessive NPs to the truth conditions of the sentences in which they occur.
Chris Barker, 1995
8
Democracy and Possessive Individualism: The Intellectual ...
According to Macpherson, possessive individualism is fundamentally flawed for two reasons. First, it generates an impoverished view of life, making acquisition and consumption central and obscuring deeper human purposes and capacities.
Joseph H. Carens, 1993
9
The Syntax of the Be-possessive: Parametric Variation and ...
Two issues will be focused on in this chapter: (i) What argument structure do existentials and possessives contain?; (ii) how is the surface derivation of the possessive construction formally described in Russian? I propose that while the ...
Hakyung Jung, 2011
10
Business Communication
A possessive noun is used to show possession or ownership. The possessive form of a noun is indicated by using an apostrophe. The following general guidelines will help you correctly form possessive nouns in written communication: 1.
A.C. Krizan, Patricia Merrier, Joyce P. Logan, 2007

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «POSSESSIVE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term possessive is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Dutch Exhibit to Highlight 17th Century 'Selfies'
The same goes for all self-portraits, from Boschaert's possessive glance as he clutches his pallet and brushes in his 1630s "Self-Portrait" to ... «Voice of America, Jul 15»
2
Brandon Flowers on the story of 'Can't Deny My Love'
"It's pretty possessive," laughs Flowers, telling Gigwise about the meaning of the track. "It's from a pretty possessive place. I just sort of did my ... «Gigwise, Jul 15»
3
True Detective: “Church In Ruins”
Ani's eye brim with tears, but her mouth is a hard line as she withdraws from a possessive nameless john, and she manages to retain Ani's ... «A.V. Club Austin, Jul 15»
4
Alice Anderson's 'Memory Movement Memory Objects': Everyday …
The act of binding seems to express the ambivalence of motherly love – cosseting and tender on the one hand, stifling and possessive on the ... «The Independent, Jul 15»
5
Astrology GIFs for the Week of July 27, 2015
You may feel overly possessive about property — you could desire something that belongs to someone else, or you may desire greater control ... «New York Magazine, Jul 15»
6
Putting on a baby voice, bad mouthing other women and expecting …
Being possessive Allow a man to also be free to keep doing all the things he loves. As soon as a man feels like he's being restricted from other ... «Daily Mail, Jul 15»
7
Reader dilemma: 'My boyfriend jokes about putting photos of us …
He has no respect for your feelings and seems likely to want to keep you (and I use keep in the most possessive sense) by emotional blackmail, ... «The Independent, Jul 15»
8
Ramaphosa's jobs fantasy - succumbing of the last sane man in …
... in van Zyl Slabbert terms, as 'possessive individualists', that brand of liberalism and liberals that think 'they know what's best for the rest'. «BizNews, Jul 15»
9
How do we know when we've found love?
This may be difficult to understand because the English language is one that is based upon possessive nouns. Such a language causes us to ... «Royal Gazette, Jul 15»
10
James Barber :What Relationships Are Trying to Tell You About …
You realise that you had no idea that you could be so jealous, so possessive. Perhaps the person you are with makes you feel vulnerable, needy, so much so ... «Huffington Post UK, Jul 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Possessive [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/possessive>. Apr 2024 ».
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