Word.ws English Dictionary

punitively

punitively adverb: in a punitive manner.

Adverb

punitively (comparative more punitively, superlative most punitively)

  1. In a punitive manner.
    • Hospital staff or caretaking relatives may find sexual concerns humorous, disgusting, embarrassing; they are bound to react punitively to any signs of homosexuality or affectational same-sex relationship.1983 December 10, Nancy A. F. Langer, “Different Abilities, Same Queer Pleasures”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 21, page 8

Forms of punitively

comparativemore punitively
superlativemost punitively

Origin of punitively

From punitive + -ly.

Words formed from punitively

Questions about punitively

What does punitively mean?
Punitively means in a punitive manner.
What part of speech is punitively?
Punitively is an adverb.

Words near punitively in the dictionary

  1. punitional
  2. punitions
  3. punitive
  4. punitive populism
  5. punitive tariff
  6. punitively
  7. punitiveness
  8. punitivism
  9. punitivity
  10. punitory
  11. Punitovci

Source and license

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