optative
Syllables: op·ta·tive/ˈɒptətɪv/
optative adjective: expressing a wish or a choice.
Adjective
optative (comparative more optative, superlative most optative)
- Expressing a wish or a choice.
- an optative blessinga. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC
- […] then, in the optative retirement from hard science that building and opening a U.S.T.A-accredited and pedagogically experimental tennis academy apparently represented for him […]1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 64
- Related or pertaining to the optative mood.
Noun
optative (plural optatives)
- A mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Old Prussian, Tamil, and Ancient Greek, but not English), used to express a wish.
- A verb or expression in the optative mood.
optative meaning in Tamil and Vietnamese
optative in Tamil
- pertaining to the optative mood
- வியங்கோள் viyaṅkōḷ
- optative
- வியங்கோள் viyaṅkōḷ
optative in Vietnamese
- pertaining to the optative mood
- thức mong mỏi
Forms of optative
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more optative |
| superlative | most optative |
| alternative form | opt. |
| Noun | |
| plural | optatives |
Origin of optative
From Middle French optatif, from Late Latin optātīvus, a calque of Ancient Greek εὐκτική (euktikḗ, “related to wishing”), from Latin optātus, past participle of optāre.
Words formed from optative
Words that rhyme with optative
- native
- dative
- creative
- translative
- equative
- illative
- collative
- induplicative
- innative
- prolative
- stative
- sublative
18 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about optative
- What does optative mean?
- Optative means expressing a wish or a choice.
- What is optative in Tamil?
- Optative in Tamil is வியங்கோள் (viyaṅkōḷ). See Optative meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is optative?
- Optative can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce optative?
- Optative is pronounced /ˈɒptətɪv/.
Words near optative in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: optative (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-optative.wav.
Cite this entry: “optative.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/optative. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.