Word.ws English Dictionary

demonstrative

/dɪˈmɒn.stɹə.tɪv/US/dɪˈmɑn.stɹə.tɪv/

demonstrative adjective: that serves to demonstrate, show or prove.

Adjective

demonstrative (comparative more demonstrative, superlative most demonstrative)

  1. That serves to demonstrate, show or prove.
    • demonstrative evidence
    • an argument necessary and demonstrative[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
  2. Given to open displays of emotion.
    • demonstrative eloquence1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
    • He had rather a contempt for demonstrative people, arising from his medical insight into the consequences to health of uncontrolled feeling.1865, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter III
  3. That specifies the thing or person referred to.

Noun

demonstrative (plural demonstratives)

  1. A demonstrative adjective.
  2. A demonstrative pronoun.

demonstrative meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Vietnamese

demonstrative in Urdu

اثباتی, مدلل

demonstrative in Bengali

demonstrative, proving, substantiating
প্রতিপাদনকারী protipadonkari

demonstrative in Malayalam

forthcoming, expressive, open
പ്രകടനപരമായ, ആവിഷ്കരണസമർത്ഥമായ, തുറന്ന, മറവില്ലാത്ത, വ്യഞ്ജകം, പ്രകടം
suggestive, indicative, indicatory
സൂചനകം, സൂചനക, വ്യഞ്ജകം, ദ്യോതക, വിഭാവക, തെളിവായി കാണിക്കുന്ന
convincing, definite, positive
പ്രത്യക്ഷതെളിവായ, ബോദ്ധ്യപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന, നിരാക്ഷേപമായി തെളിയുന്ന, വിശ്വാസകാരി, നിശ്ചിതമായ, അസന്ദിഗ്ദ്ധമായ

demonstrative in Vietnamese

(grammar) that specifies the thing or person referred to
đại từ chỉ định

Examples of demonstrative in a sentence

  • In the sentence I like this, the word this is a demonstrative pronoun.
  • In the sentence I like this music, the word this is a demonstrative adjective.
  • In the sentence I like this music, the word this is a demonstrative determiner.

All 11 example sentences with demonstrative

Forms of demonstrative

Adjective
comparativemore demonstrative
superlativemost demonstrative
Noun
pluraldemonstratives

Origin of demonstrative

From Middle English demonstratif, from Middle French démonstratif, from Latin dēmōnstrātīvus. Equivalent to demonstrate + -ive.

Words formed from demonstrative

Phrases with demonstrative

Questions about demonstrative

What does demonstrative mean?
Demonstrative means that serves to demonstrate, show or prove.
What is demonstrative in Urdu?
Demonstrative in Urdu is اثباتی, مدلل. See Demonstrative meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is demonstrative?
Demonstrative can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce demonstrative?
Demonstrative is pronounced /dɪˈmɒn.stɹə.tɪv/ (UK).

Words near demonstrative in the dictionary

  1. demonstration sport
  2. demonstrational
  3. demonstrationist
  4. demonstrationists
  5. demonstrations
  6. demonstrative
  7. demonstrative adjective
  8. demonstrative adjectives
  9. demonstrative determiner
  10. demonstrative determiners
  11. demonstrative legacies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: demonstrative (page history and authors); demonstrative (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); প্রতিপাদনকারী (Bengali) (page history and authors); demonstrative (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-demonstrative.wav.

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