creative
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Often, excellently, in a novel fashion, or any or all of these.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kreeaytivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kɹiˈeɪtɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Tending to create things, or having the ability to create; often, excellently, in a novel fashion, or any or all of these.
Having the ability or power to create
of a created thing
Original, expressive and imaginative.
Designed or executed to deceive or mislead.
noun
uncountable
Artistic material used in advertising, e.g. photographs, drawings, or video.
countable
A person directly involved in a creative marketing process.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Tending to create things, or having the ability to create; often, excellently, in a novel fashion, or any or all of these.
Used this way, creative is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use creative
- “A creative imagination.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Terms referring to the Judeo-Christian God.
In a creative manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The human act of creating.
A person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination.
An important intellectual.
The ability to create.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.