determinative: Meaning and Definition of

de•ter•mi•na•tive

Pronunciation: (di-tûr'mu-nā"tiv, -nu-tiv), [key]
— adj.
  1. serving to determine; determining.
—n.
  1. something that determines.
  2. a graphic symbol used in ideographic writing to denote a semantic class and written next to a word to indicate in what semantic category that word is to be understood, thus at times distinguishing homographs.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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