Word.ws English Dictionary

generativity

generativity noun: the ability to create or reproduce.

Noun

generativity (countable and uncountable, plural generativities)

  1. The ability to create or reproduce.
    • Generativity is a broad property of systems that denotes the capacity of agents within them to connect to others and produce unanticipated outcomes and change.2015, Daniel Araya, editor, Smart Cities as Democratic Ecologies, Springer, →ISBN
  2. (developmental psychology) The ability to transcend personal interests to provide care and concern for younger and older generations.
    • Most broadly, Erikson (1975) considers generativity to mean any caring activity that contributes to the spirit of future generations, such as the generation of new or more mature persons, products, ideas, or works of art.1995, Marc H. Bornstein, editor, Handbook of Parenting, volume 2, →ISBN

Forms of generativity

pluralgenerativities

Origin of generativity

From generative + -ity. In the psychology sense coined by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson in 1950.

Questions about generativity

What does generativity mean?
Generativity means the ability to create or reproduce.
What part of speech is generativity?
Generativity is a noun.
What is the plural of generativity?
The plural of generativity is generativities.

Words near generativity in the dictionary

  1. generativism
  2. generativist
  3. generativistic
  4. generativists
  5. generativities
  6. generativity
  7. generator
  8. generators
  9. generatrices
  10. generatrix
  11. generatrixes

Source and license

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