Word.ws English Dictionary

causative

Syllables: caus·at·ive/ˈkɔːzətɪv/US/ˈkɔzətɪv/

causative adjective: acting as a cause.

Adjective

causative (not comparable)

  1. Acting as a cause.
    • Causative in nature of a number of effects.1605, Francis Bacon, “(please specify |book=1 or 2)”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas...
    Synonyms:
    occasional
  2. Involving, or affected by, causality.
    • Such statistical analysis can establish correlation but cannot tell us whether the correlation is proximally causative, distally causative, or noncausative.
  3. Expressing a cause or causation.
    • The ablative is a causative case.

Noun

causative (plural causatives)

  1. An expression of an agent causing or forcing a patient to perform an action (or to be in a certain condition).

causative meaning in Tamil

causative in Tamil

linguistics: expressing cause or causation
பிறவினை piṟaviṉai
linguistics
பிறவினை piṟaviṉai

Examples of causative in a sentence

  • The effect related linearly to the amount of causative agent added.
  • Echoviruses were the likely causative agents in the initial series of Cherry.
  • Nosema apis are the causative agent of nosema disease (nosemosis) in honeybees (Apis mellifera).

All 15 example sentences with causative

Synonyms of causative

Antonyms

Forms of causative

pluralcausatives

Origin of causative

From French causatif, from Latin causātīvus (“causative, pertaining to a lawsuit, accusative”), from causa (“cause”); see cause (verb) and -ive.

Words formed from causative

Phrases with causative

Questions about causative

What does causative mean?
Causative means acting as a cause.
What is causative in Tamil?
Causative in Tamil is பிறவினை (piṟaviṉai). See Causative meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is causative?
Causative can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce causative?
Causative is pronounced /ˈkɔːzətɪv/ (UK).

Words near causative in the dictionary

  1. causational
  2. causationism
  3. causationist
  4. causationists
  5. causations
  6. causative
  7. causative verb
  8. causative verbs
  9. causatively
  10. causativeness
  11. causatives

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: causative (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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