Word Direct Answers

What does "substantive" mean?

Substantive: Depending on itself; independent. He considered how sufficient and substantive this land was to maintain itself without any aid of the foreigner. Bacon.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Enduring; solid; firm; substantial. Strength and magnitude are qualities which impress the imagination in a powerful and substantive manner. Hazlitt.
  2. 3.Pertaining to, or constituting, the essential part or principles; as, the law substantive. Noun substantive (Gram.), a noun which designates an object, material or immaterial; a substantive. -- Substantive color, one which communicates its color without the aid of a mordant or base; -- opposed to adjective color.
  3. 4.A noun or name; the part of speech which designates something that exists, or some object of thought, either material or immaterial; as, the words man, horse, city, goodness, excellence, are substantives.
  4. 5.To substantivize. [R.] Cudworth.

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