jussive

US[ˈd͡ʒʌsɪv]

jussive noun: the jussive mood, a verb inflection used to indicate a command, permission or agreement with a request; an instance of a verb so inflected.

Noun

jussive (usually uncountable, plural jussives)

(countable, uncountable, usually) The jussive mood, a verb inflection used to indicate a command, permission or agreement with a request; an instance of a verb so inflected.
- For example, in the Aaronide blessing, only two of the six verbs are formally jussives, yet all have the same volitional sense.1990, Bruce K. Waltke, Michael Patrick O′Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, page 566
- As far as the jussive goes — ignoring the very few occurrences of this in first person — it can be noted that most of the second-person jussives are in negative commands.2003, Robert E. Longacre, Joseph: A Story of Divine Providence: A Text Theoretical and Textlinguistic Analysis of Genesis 37 and 39-48, 2nd edition, footnote, page 121
(Arabic, usually) A verbal mood of vague or miscellaneous senses, occurring after some particles and in conditional clauses.

Synonyms:

apocopate

Adjective

jussive (not comparable)

Of or in the jussive mood.

jussive meaning in Arabic

jussive in Arabic

jussive mood: مَجْزُوم majzūm
of or in the jussive mood: مجزوم majzūm

Examples of jussive in a sentence

If, on the other hand, reference is made purely to the root, we would expect all frequentative jussives to appear with a front element, producing *mɨt′ət′ɨs instead of mɨt′ət′ɨs (19d).2003, Sharon Rose, “The formation of Ethiopian Semitic internal reduplication”, in Joseph Shimron, editor, Language Processing and...
The jussive and cohortative usually convey more indirect, or more subtle, expressions of volition than the imperative does.2006, Robert Ray Ellis, Learning to Read Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar, page 174:

Synonyms of jussive

apocopate

Forms of jussive

plural	jussives

Origin of jussive

From Latin jussus, perfect participle of jubeō (“to order, command”). Related to Latin iūs (“law, order”). Latin juss- + -ive.

Words formed from jussive

Questions about jussive

What does jussive mean?: Jussive means the jussive mood, a verb inflection used to indicate a command, permission or agreement with a request; an instance of a verb so inflected.
What is jussive in Arabic?: Jussive in Arabic is مَجْزُوم (majzūm), مجزوم (majzūm). See Jussive meaning in Arabic.
How do you use jussive in a sentence?: If, on the other hand, reference is made purely to the root, we would expect all frequentative jussives to appear with a front element, producing *mɨt′ət′ɨs instead of mɨt′ət′ɨs (19d).
What part of speech is jussive?: Jussive can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce jussive?: Jussive is pronounced [ˈd͡ʒʌsɪv] (US).
What is the plural of jussive?: The plural of jussive is jussives.

Words near jussive in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: jussive (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-jussive.wav.

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