Word.ws English Dictionary

coactive

coactive adjective: serving to compel or constrain; compulsory; restrictive.

Adjective (1)

coactive (comparative more coactive, superlative most coactive)

  1. (obsolete) Serving to compel or constrain; compulsory; restrictive.
    • any coactive power or the civil kind1738–1741, William Warburton, The Divine Legation of Moses […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II.1, or II.2), London: […] Fletcher Gyles, […], →OCLC

Adjective (2)

coactive (comparative more coactive, superlative most coactive)

  1. Acting in concurrence; united in action.
    • Affection? thy Intention ſtabs the Center. / Thou do'ſt make poſſible things not ſo held, / Communicat'ſt vvith Dreames (hovv can this be?) / VVith vvhat's vnreall: thou coactiue art, / And fellow'ſt nothing.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Forms of coactive

comparativemore coactive
superlativemost coactive

Origin of coactive

See Latin coactum.

From co- + active.

Words formed from coactive

Questions about coactive

What does coactive mean?
Coactive means serving to compel or constrain; compulsory; restrictive.
What part of speech is coactive?
Coactive is an adjective.

Words near coactive in the dictionary

  1. coactivation
  2. coactivations
  3. coactivator
  4. coactivators
  5. coactivatory
  6. coactive
  7. coactively
  8. coactivities
  9. coactivity
  10. coactor
  11. coactors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coactive (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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Cite this entry: “coactive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coactive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.