reductive
/ɹɪˈdʌktɪv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.75 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Causing the physical reduction or diminution of something.
adj
That reduces a substance etc. to a more simple or basic form.
adj
That reduces an argument, issue etc. to its most basic terms; simplistic, reductionist.
Example Sentences
- "On the relative reductive powers of different classes of American coals, as demonstrated by the experiments with oxide of lead."
- "It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted."
- "But then beside the primary and direct sense of the text, the ancients commonly supposed that there was a reductive or anagogical meaning, in which it might be taken."
Etymology
From Middle French réductif, from Late Latin reductivus, from the participle stem of Latin reducere (“to reduce”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: réductif, reductivus, reducere
Usage
Inflected Forms
more reductive (comparative)
most reductive (superlative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
reductive animation
reductive dechlorination
reductive grammar
reductive group