Word.ws English Dictionary

adversative

/ədˈvɝsəˌtɪv/

adversative adjective: expressing opposition or difference.

Adjective

adversative (not comparable)

  1. Expressing opposition or difference.
    • In Matthew's Q-source, this short sentence may have been introduced by the strong adversative conjunction, "but" (alla).1992, Raymond F. Collins, Divorce in the New Testament, page 155
  2. Expressing adverse effect.
    • In an adversative causative, the "causer" has only a nominal status and is, in actuality, a victim of the situation ...2002, Shoichi Iwasaki, Japanese, page 146
    • This type of 'get-passive' typically bears adversative connotation, i.e. it is not used to express passives if the patient is not somewhat negatively affected by the event.2004, Umberto Ansaldo, “The evolution of Singapore English”, in Lisa Lim, editor, Singapore English: A Grammatical Description, page 138

Noun

adversative (plural adversatives)

  1. (dated, rare) Something, particularly a clause or conjunction, which is adversative.

adversative meaning in Tamil

adversative in Tamil

எதிரான, மாறான

Forms of adversative

Adjective
alternative formadversitive
Noun
pluraladversatives

Origin of adversative

From Latin adversativus (“of conjunctions, expressing opposition”).

Words formed from adversative

Questions about adversative

What does adversative mean?
Adversative means expressing opposition or difference.
What is adversative in Tamil?
Adversative in Tamil is எதிரான, மாறான. See Adversative meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is adversative?
Adversative can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce adversative?
Adversative is pronounced /ədˈvɝsəˌtɪv/ (US).

Words near adversative in the dictionary

  1. adversarialness
  2. adversaries
  3. adversariness
  4. adversarious
  5. adversary
  6. adversative
  7. adversatively
  8. adversativeness
  9. adversatives
  10. adversativity
  11. adverse

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: adversative (page history and authors); adversative (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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