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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

substantive

/ˈsʌbstəntɪv/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does substantive mean?

adjective

  1. Of the essence or essential element of a thing.
  2. Constituting the substance of content rather than its style, and thus always nontrivial.
  3. Having substance; enduring; solid; firm; substantial.
More meanings (8)

adjective

  1. Applying to essential legal principles and rules of right.
  2. Not needing the use of a mordant to be made fast to that which is being dyed.
  3. Depending on itself; independent.
  4. Of or pertaining to a substantive.
  5. Actually and legally held, as distinct from an acting, temporary or honorary rank or appointment.

noun

  1. Ellipsis of noun substantive or substantive noun, a noun or a group of words (a noun phrase) that act as a noun (in a sentence).
  2. Part of a text that carries the meaning, such as words and their ordering.

verb

  1. (rare) To make a word belonging to another part of speech into a substantive (that is, a noun) or use it as a noun.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈsʌbstəntɪv/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other dictionary pronunciations

/səbˈstæntɪv/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

If we cannot understand him in his objective creatures, how then in his substantive moods and phases of creation?
Edgar Allan PoeThe Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2Project Gutenberg ebook #2148
What a structure of little monosyllabic and disyllabic forms is added to the verb and to the substantive, in the Coptic language!
Alexander von Humboldt; Aimé BonplandPersonal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 1Translated by Thomasina RossProject Gutenberg ebook #6322
More book examples (3)
Mana is not only a force, it is also an action, a quality, a state, at once a substantive, an adjective, and a verb.
A. C. (Albert Charles) SewardDarwin and Modern ScienceProject Gutenberg ebook #1909
We should have been greatly surprised by the novelty and the forbidding look of such words in the grammatical jargon as substantive, indicative and subjunctive.
Jean-Henri FabreThe Life of the Fly; With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of AutobiographyTranslated by Alexander Teixeira de MattosProject Gutenberg ebook #3422
The Albino is as well made as other men—has no substantive deformity—and yet this mere aspect of all-pervading whiteness makes him more strangely hideous than the ugliest abortion.
Herman MelvilleMoby Dick; Or, The WhaleProject Gutenberg ebook #2701