hortative
UK/ˈhɔːtətɪv//ˈhɔɹtətɪv/
hortative adjective: urging, exhorting, or encouraging.
Adjective
hortative (comparative more hortative, superlative most hortative)
- Urging, exhorting, or encouraging.
- The ministration of these oracles from the pulpit is to be reformed from any of its factitious peculiarities, and made again what it was among the apostles and their immediate successors—earnest, simple, powerful address—hortative talk, if we may so call it.January 1854, “The Preaching Required by the Times”, in The National Magazine, volume 4, number 1, New York, Editorial, pages 79–80
- Of a mood or class of imperative subjunctive moods of a verb for giving strong encouragement.
- Synonyms:
- hortatory, supportive, cohortative, exhortative
Noun
hortative (plural hortatives)
- A mood or class of imperative subjunctive moods of a verb for giving strong encouragement.
- Synonyms:
- cohortative, exhortative
Synonyms of hortative
Forms of hortative
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more hortative |
| superlative | most hortative |
| Noun | |
| plural | hortatives |
Origin of hortative
From Latin hortātīvus, from hortor (“to exhort”).
Words formed from hortative
Questions about hortative
- What does hortative mean?
- Hortative means urging, exhorting, or encouraging.
- What part of speech is hortative?
- Hortative can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce hortative?
- Hortative is pronounced /ˈhɔːtətɪv/ (UK).
Words near hortative in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hortative (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hortative.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hortative.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hortative. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.