Definition of RELATIVE

relative

Plural: relatives

Noun

  • A person connected by blood or marriage; a family member.
  • a person related by blood or marriage
    • "police are searching for relatives of the deceased"
  • an animal or plant that bears a relationship to another (as related by common descent or by membership in the same genus)
  • Someone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption; someone in the same family.
  • Something kindred or related to something else.
  • A type of adjective that inflects like a relative clause, rather than a true adjective, in certain Bantu languages.

Adjective

  • estimated by comparison; not absolute or complete
    • "a relative stranger"

Adjective Satellite

  • properly related in size or degree or other measurable characteristics; usually followed by `to'
    • "earnings relative to production"

Adj

  • Connected to or depending on something else; comparative.
  • Expressed in relation to another item, rather than in complete form.
  • Depending on an antecedent; comparative.
  • Having the same key but differing in being major or minor.
  • Relevant; pertinent; related.
  • Capable to be changed by other beings or circumstance; conditional.

Adv

  • Alternative form of relatively.

Examples

  • In a game of Words With Friends, sometimes a common word can feel like a long-lost RELATIVE.
  • relative to your earlier point about taxes, ...
  • The relative URL /images/pic.jpg, when evaluated in the context of http://example.com/index.html, corresponds to the absolute URL http://example.com/images/pic.jpg.
  • The words “big” and “small” are relative.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle French relatif, from Late Latin relātīvus, from Latin relātus, perfect passive participle of referō (“to carry back, to ascribe”), from re- (“again”) + ferō (“to bear or carry”).

Antonyms

absolute, unlimited

Scrabble Score: 11

relative: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
relative: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
relative: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 13

relative: valid Words With Friends Word