Word.ws English Dictionary

collective

Syllables: col·lec·tive/kəˈlɛktɪv/

collective adjective: formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body.

Adjective

collective (not comparable)

  1. Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body.
    • the collective body of a nation
  2. Tending to collect; forming a collection.
    • Local is his throne […] to fix a point, / A central point, collective of his sons.1743, [Edward Young], “Night the Fourth. The Christian Triumph.”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […]; [a]nd sold by M[ary] Cooper...
  3. Having plurality of origin or authority.
  4. Expressing a collection or aggregate of individuals, by a singular form.
  5. (obsolete) Deducing consequences; reasoning; inferring.
    • critical and collective reason1642, [Thomas Browne], “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici, London: […] Andrew Crooke, →OCLC

Noun

collective (plural collectives)

  1. A farm owned by a collection of people.
  2. (especially) One of more farms managed and owned, through the state, by the community.
  3. A collective noun or name.
  4. (broadly) A group dedicated to a particular cause or interest.
    • There are, however, a number of contemporary artists and art collectives that have defined their practice precisely around the facilitation of dialogue among diverse communities.2005, Zoya Kocur, Simon Leung, Theory in contemporary art since 1985, page 76
    • Critical Art Ensemble is one of many art collectives operating on the principle that information is power and that it is most effectively made available through a combination of science and aesthetics.2006 March 5, Holland Cotter, “The Collective Conscious”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  5. The flight control used to control a helicopter's ascent or descent.
    • A pilot normally holds the collective stationary until the helicopter stops; however, to get more braking action, lower the collective slightly. Keep in mind that, due to the increased ground friction when the collective is lowered or[…]2012, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Helicopter Flying Handbook: FAA-H-8083-21A, Ravenio Books
    • Hover height, rate of ascent, and the rate of descent are controlled by using the collective. Helicopter position and the direction of travel are controlled by the cyclic.2021 July 27, Federal Aviation Administration, Helicopter Flying Handbook: FAA-H-8083-21B, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

collective meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

collective in Hindi

collective, combined
सामूहिक sāmūhik

collective in Tamil

கூட்டாக, ஒருமித்த

collective in Urdu

مجموعی

collective in Bengali

সমষ্টিগত, মিলিত, একত্রীকৃত, সমষ্টিবাচক
More languagesFewer languages
collective in Malayalam
പൊതുവേയുളള, ഒന്നിച്ചുകൂടിയ, കൂട്ടായ, സഞ്ചിതമായ
collective in Kannada
ಸಾಮುದಾಯಿಕ ವ್ಯವಹಾರ, ಸಾಮುದಾಯಿಕ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ, ಸಾಮೂಹಿಕ, ಒಟ್ಟಿನ
collective in Gujarati
સમૂહવાચક samūhvācak
collective in Malay
kolektif
collective in Indonesian
kolektif

Examples of collective in a sentence

  • Collective salvation is not possible without personal salvation, but the latter is achievable.
  • The dramatical interpretation of the book caught the viewers' collective imagination.
  • They ruthlessly suppressed any dissent for fear that it would inspire the citizens to take some sort of collective action against the government.

All 40 example sentences with collective

Synonyms of collective

Forms of collective

pluralcollectives

Plural of collective: collectives

Origin of collective

From Middle French collectif, from Latin collēctīvus, from collēctus, past participle of colligō (“to collect”), from com- (“together”) + legō (“to gather”). Compare French collectif. Doublet of colectivo.

Words formed from collective

Phrases with collective

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with collective

28 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about collective

What does collective mean?
Collective means formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body.
What is collective in Hindi?
Collective in Hindi is सामूहिक (sāmūhik). See Collective meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is collective?
Collective can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce collective?
Collective is pronounced /kəˈlɛktɪv/.

Words near collective in the dictionary

  1. collectionally
  2. collectioner
  3. collectioners
  4. collectionitis
  5. collections
  6. collective
  7. collective action
  8. collective agreement
  9. collective agreements
  10. collective bargaining
  11. collective buying

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: collective (page history and authors); सामूहिक (Hindi) (page history and authors); collective (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); collective (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); collective (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); collective (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); collective (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); સમૂહવાચક (Gujarati) (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: “collective.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/collective. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.