formative — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Capable of forming something.

   Synonyms

   creantpoietic

   Antonyms

   unformative

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   [I]ts thought, that, in the Seed are alvvaies potentially ſeuerall indiuiduating Qualities deriu'd from diuers of the neere Anceſtors, vvhich by the formatiue povver of the Parents may be expreſt in the Children, vvith reſpectiue habitude to either Sex; […]

   Hybrids, […] have their reproductive organs functionally impotent, as may be clearly seen in the state of the male element in both plants and animals; though the formative organs themselves are perfect in structure, as far as the microscope reveals.

2. Capable of forming something. Capable of producing new tissue.

3. Capable of forming something. Pertaining to the formation of words; specifically, of an affix: forming words through inflection.

4. Of or pertaining to the formation and subsequent growth of something.

   Antonyms

   unformative

   Examples

   My formative years were spent in an inner city.

5. Of a form of assessment: used to guide learning rather than to quantify educational outcomes.

Noun

1. A thing which causes formation to occur.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   [T]his museum of the state of flux [Newmarket, Suffolk] has a climate unrivalled for the production of the British temperament. Not without a due proportion of that essential formative of character, east wind, it has at once the hottest sun, the coldest blizzards, the wettest rain, of any place of its size in 'the three kingdoms.'

2. A language unit, typically a morph, that has a morphological function (that is, forming a word from a root or another word).

   Synonyms

   formansformant

   Narrower terms

   affix

3. Synonym of derivative (“a word that derives from another one”).

   Synonyms

   descendantreflex

Adjective

1. capable of forming new cells and tissues

   Examples

   a formative zone in developing bone

2. forming or capable of forming or molding or fashioning

   Synonyms

   shapingplastic

   Examples

   a formative influence

   a formative experience

   More examples (1)

   the plastic forces of nature

Noun

1. minimal language unit that has a syntactic (or morphological) function

   Broader terms

   language unitlinguistic unit