Adjacent Words

Collective definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COLLECTIVE, a.
1. Formed by gathering; gathered into a mass, sum, or body; congregated, or aggregated.
2. Deducing consequences; reasoning; inferring.
3. In grammar, expressing an number or multitude united; as a collective noun or name, which, though in the singular number itself, denotes more than one; as, company, army, troop, assembly.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: done by or characteristic of individuals acting together; "a joint identity"; "the collective mind"; "the corporate good" [syn: corporate, collective]
2: forming a whole or aggregate [ant: distributive]
3: set up on the principle of collectivism or ownership and production by the workers involved usually under the supervision of a government; "collective farms" n
1: members of a cooperative enterprise

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Date: 15th century 1. denoting a number of persons or things considered as one group or whole <flock is a collective word> 2. a. formed by collecting ; aggregated b. of a fruit multiple 3. a. of, relating to, or being a group of individuals b. involving all members of a group as distinct from its individuals <a collective action> 4. marked by similarity among or with the members of a group 5. collectivized or characterized by collectivism 6. shared or assumed by all members of the group <collective responsibility> • collectively adverb II. noun Date: 1655 1. a collective body ; group 2. a cooperative unit or organization; specifically collective farm 3. a helicopter control system governing lift

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 formed by or constituting a collection. 2 taken as a whole; aggregate (our collective opinion). 3 of or from several or many individuals; common. --n. 1 a = collective farm. b any cooperative enterprise. c its members. 2 = collective noun. Phrases and idioms: collective bargaining negotiation of wages etc. by an organized body of employees. collective farm a jointly-operated esp. State-owned amalgamation of several smallholdings. collective noun Gram. a noun that is grammatically singular and denotes a collection or number of individuals (e.g. assembly, family, troop). collective ownership ownership of land, means of production, etc., by all for the benefit of all. collective unconscious Psychol. (in Jungian theory) the part of the unconscious mind derived from ancestral memory and experience common to all mankind, as distinct from the personal unconscious. Derivatives: collectively adv. collectiveness n. collectivity n. Etymology: F collectif or L collectivus (as COLLECT(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Collective Col*lect"ive, n. (Gram.) A collective noun or name.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Collective Col*lect"ive, a. [L. collectivus: cf. F. collectif.] 1. Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body; congregated or aggregated; as, the collective body of a nation. --Bp. Hoadley. 2. Deducing consequences; reasoning; inferring. [Obs.] ``Critical and collective reason.'' --Sir T. Browne. 3. (Gram.) Expressing a collection or aggregate of individuals, by a singular form; as, a collective name or noun, like assembly, army, jury, etc. 4. Tending to collect; forming a collection. Local is his throne . . . to fix a point, A central point, collective of his sons. --Young. 5. Having plurality of origin or authority; as, in diplomacy, a note signed by the representatives of several governments is called a collective note. Collective fruit (Bot.), that which is formed from a mass of flowers, as the mulberry, pineapple, and the like; -- called also multiple fruit. --Gray.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(collectives) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Collective actions, situations, or feelings involve or are shared by every member of a group of people. It was a collective decision... The country's politicians are already heaving a collective sigh of relief. = joint ADJ: ADJ n • collectively The Cabinet is collectively responsible for policy. ADV: oft ADV with cl 2. A collective amount of something is the total obtained by adding together the amounts that each person or thing in a group has. Their collective volume wasn't very large. = combined ADJ: ADJ n • collectively In 1968 the states collectively spent $2 billion on it. ADV: ADV with v 3. The collective term for two or more types of thing is a general word or expression which refers to all of them. Social science is a collective name, covering a series of individual sciences. ADJ: ADJ n • collectively ...other sorts of cells (known collectively as white corpuscles). ADV: ADV with v 4. A collective is a business or farm which is run, and often owned, by a group of people who take an equal share of any profits. (BUSINESS) He will see that he is participating in all the decisions of the collective. = co-operative N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

abstract, accompanying, accordant, agreeing, associate, associated, at one with, bland, broad, coacting, coactive, coadjutant, coadjuvant, coadunate, coefficient, coincident, collaborative, collectivist, collectivistic, collusive, combined, combining, commensal, common, communal, communalist, communalistic, communist, communistic, communitarian, commutual, concerted, concomitant, concordant, concurrent, concurring, conjoint, conniving, consilient, conspiratorial, cooperant, cooperating, cooperative, coordinate, coworking, ecumenic, featureless, fellow, general, generalized, generic, harmonious, harmonized, in common, indefinite, indeterminate, joint, meeting, mutual, nebulous, neutral, noncompetitive, nonspecific, parasitic, popular, public, reciprocal, saprophytic, social, socialistic, societal, symbiotic, synchronous, synergetic, synergic, synergistic, uncharacterized, uncompetitive, undifferentiated, united, uniting, unspecified, vague, wide