Word.ws English Dictionary

absolute comparative

absolute comparative noun: the use of a comparative to indicate a relatively high degree of some quality, without explicitly making a comparison, as in "higher education".

Noun

absolute comparative (plural absolute comparatives)

  1. The use of a comparative to indicate a relatively high degree of some quality, without explicitly making a comparison, as in "higher education".
    • In a large number of languages (Tok Pisin among them), however, absolute positives may function as absolute comparatives. Considerations such as these are needed to understand Tok Pisin degrees of comparison.1995, John W. M. Verhaar, Toward a Reference Grammar of Tok Pisin, page 255

Forms of absolute comparative

pluralabsolute comparatives

Questions about absolute comparative

What does absolute comparative mean?
Absolute comparative means the use of a comparative to indicate a relatively high degree of some quality, without explicitly making a comparison, as in "higher education".
What part of speech is absolute comparative?
Absolute comparative is a noun.
What is the plural of absolute comparative?
The plural of absolute comparative is absolute comparatives.

Words near absolute comparative in the dictionary

  1. absolute blocking
  2. absolute ceiling
  3. absolute ceilings
  4. absolute cinema
  5. absolute code
  6. absolute comparative
  7. absolute comparatives
  8. absolute complement
  9. absolute complements
  10. absolute constant
  11. absolute constants

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: absolute comparative (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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