Word.ws English Dictionary

suppletive

/səˈpliː.tɪv/

suppletive adjective: making up for deficiencies; supplementary; suppletory.

Adjective

suppletive (comparative more suppletive, superlative most suppletive)

  1. Making up for deficiencies; supplementary; suppletory.
  2. Supplying an etymologically unrelated word with forms, or which is used as one of its forms, by suppletion (for example, in English, better and best are suppletive forms of good).
    • ... of optimus, meaning “best,” which in turn is the superlative suppletive form of bonus, “good.”1999, K. V. Tirumalesh, Grammar and Communication: Essays on the Form and Function of Language, page 237
  3. Relating to laws which can apply in a contract if the parties choose to agree to this.
    • Article 11 of the Louisiana Civil Code provides the legal framework for the doctrinal distinction between imperative, or mandatory, and suppletive laws. Although neither term is included in the article, traditional civilian doctrine characterizes as imperative those legal precepts rooted in public...1981, Alejandro M. Garro, “Codification Technique and the Problem of Imperative and Suppletive Laws”, in Louisiana Law Review, volume 41, page 1008
    • ...I deem little short of frivolous the contention that the Equal Protection Clause prohibits enforcement of marital obligations, in either the mandatory or the suppletive form.Labine v. Vincent, 401 U.S. 532 (1971), Harlan, J., concurring

Noun

suppletive (plural suppletives)

  1. A form used by way of suppletion.

Forms of suppletive

Adjective
comparativemore suppletive
superlativemost suppletive
Noun
pluralsuppletives

Origin of suppletive

Borrowed from Late Latin suppletīvus.

Words formed from suppletive

Questions about suppletive

What does suppletive mean?
Suppletive means making up for deficiencies; supplementary; suppletory.
What part of speech is suppletive?
Suppletive can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce suppletive?
Suppletive is pronounced /səˈpliː.tɪv/ (UK).

Words near suppletive in the dictionary

  1. suppleted
  2. suppletes
  3. suppleting
  4. suppletion
  5. suppletions
  6. suppletive
  7. suppletively
  8. suppletiveness
  9. suppletives
  10. suppletivism
  11. suppletivisms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: suppletive (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:

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

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