Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use relative in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Relative means connected to or depending on something else; comparative. Example: “We've been discussing the relative merits of various methods of transportation.”

Examples of relative by meaning

adjectiveConnected to or depending on something else; comparative.

  • We've been discussing the relative merits of various methods of transportation.
  • It was a murder case and the guilt or innocence of an accused man depended on the relative positions of the fifty-first and fifty-second cards.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
  • For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 10 Dec 2022

adjectiveDepending on an antecedent; comparative.

  • The words “big” and “small” are relative.

nounSomeone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption; someone in the same family.

  • The eldest son was usually given the name of his paternal grandfather, later children those of other relatives.1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon...
  • In 2008, the leader of a pro-government union accused Flores of nepotism after she reportedly hired at least 40 relatives to work within the National Assembly.2026 January 5, Callum Sutherland, “Who Is Cilia Flores? What to Know About Maduro’s Wife Amid Fall of Venezuela's First Couple”, in TIME...

More sentences with relative

  • He bought a big sofa two days before his relatives arrived.From the entry sofa
  • He launched into a long-winded discussion of the relative merits of asphalt and concrete.From the entry long-winded
  • The complement of the odd numbers is the even numbers, relative to the natural numbers.From the entry complement
  • This is precisely why insistence on relative truth is antithetical to critical thinking.From the entry antithetical
  • Friends and relatives were coming out of the woodwork to celebrate his good fortune.From the entry woodwork
  • Iron has a density of 7.8 grams per cubic centimeter: its dimensionless relative density is 7.8.From the entry dimensionless
  • There is no shortage of ravening friends and relatives on the day one hits the lottery.From the entry ravening
  • It's the kind of Manhattan place you take your relatives when they come from out of town.From the entry out of town
  • Amid accusations of a cover-up, relatives of the deceased demanded a reautopsy.From the entry reautopsy
  • The stock is trading rich relative to its sector.From the entry trade
  • For Christmas we just had a few close relatives round.From the entry close
  • Mom was slim, as were most of her relatives.From the entry as
  • Uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces are collateral relatives.From the entry collateral
  • The deceased man had no near relatives.From the entry near
  • You should bless your relatives, because they arrived here already.From the entry bless
  • The dassie is the closest living relative to the elephant.From the entry dassie
  • He betrothed his daughter to a distant relative.From the entry betroth
  • After she won the lottery, Marge had long-lost relatives she didn't know from a bar of soap come up to her to ask for money.From the entry know from a bar of soap
  • Polar wander can be used to measure the degree to which Earth's magnetic poles have been observed to move relative to the Earth's rotation axis.From the entry polar wander
  • Scattered disc objects typically have highly eccentric orbits which can be inclined up to 40° relative to the orbital plane of the inner solar system.From the entry scattered disc object
  • The dialectics of absolute and relative, concrete and abstract, subject and object, and theory and practice is focused on some of the most important questions in philosophy.From the entry dialectics
  • He was a friend of Christopher Thompkins, and had joined a demonstration of his supporters and relatives.2026 August 23, Aniket Chaughule, “Christopher Thompkins Vanished From a Georgia Survey Site in 2002. His Coworkers Were Only 50 Feet…. From the entry demonstration
  • One of the strongest examples of acephobia I've experienced in my life came from a relative.2023, Michele Kirichanskaya, Ace Notes: Tips and Tricks on Existing in an Allo World, page 195. From the entry acephobia
  • Like many Autistics, Trevor had a reduced muscle tone relative to most of the neurotypicals he knew.2022, Devon Price, chapter 5, in Michele Eniclerico, editor, Unmasking Autism, New York: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 142. From the entry reedy
  • Kelly genuinely believes his views about the relative merits of various therapies are correct.2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian. From the entry narrowcasting
  • Purple arrows show the average GPS velocity field relative to station of Paisha, Penghu.2021, Pei-Ru Jian, “The 2010 Jiashian and 2016 Meinong Earthquakes: Doublet Ruptures Interact Across Two Strong Asperities”, in AutoBATS…. From the entry Paisha
  • I almost lost my life at the hands of a relative.2021 April 8, @TeamMakeSure, Twitter, archived from the original on 10 Jan 2024. From the entry tht
  • Among them were the ancient palaeotheriids, early relatives of the rhinos, tapirs and horses.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 64. From the entry palaeotheriid
  • The relative scarcity of children's sarcophagi (i.e. of child-sized sarcophagi) and specifically child-related iconographies.2018, B. C. Ewald, “Attic Sarcophagi”, in Lucy Gaynor Audley-Miller, Beate Dignas, editors, Wandering Myths, De Gruyter, page 239. From the entry erotes
  • In an absolute skewer, the king is involved, whereas a relative skewer does not involve the king.2018, George Huczek, A to Z Chess Tactics: Every Chess Move Explained, Batsford, →ISBN. From the entry absolute skewer
  • Normally two ALSs are installed in central locations relative to the airfield environment.2017 May 3, Rob Mark, “How It Works: Runway Visual Range”, in Flying. From the entry als
  • Her only relative was a niece in Boston, who arranged for a local lawyer to liquidate Mrs.2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad […], New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 46. From the entry liquidate
  • CCC can increase the relative content of ABA by inhibiting the biosynthesis of GA.2016 February 13, “Mixed Compound of DCPTA and CCC Increases Maize Yield by Improving Plant Morphology and Up-Regulating Photosynthetic…. From the entry transpolyisoprene
  • We also get some general results under nefness and relative semi-ampleness assumptions..2016, Lei Zhang, “Subadditivity of Kodaira dimensions for fibrations from minimal models to projective varieties of general type”, in arXiv. From the entry nefness

Meaning of relative

  1. adjective Connected to or depending on something else; comparative.
  2. adjective Expressed in relation to another item, rather than in complete form.
  3. adjective Depending on an antecedent; comparative.

Full definition of relative

Questions about relative in a sentence

How do you use relative in a sentence?
Relative is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “We've been discussing the relative merits of various methods of transportation.”
What is a short sentence with relative?
“The deceased man had no near relatives.”
What does relative mean?
Relative means connected to or depending on something else; comparative.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: relative (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use relative in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/relative. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.