decisive
adjective
Simple meaning
Determining or having the power to determine an outcome.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihsysivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈsaɪsɪv
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
Determining or having the power to determine an outcome
Having the power or quality of deciding a question or controversy; putting an end to contest or controversy; final; conclusive.
Marked by promptness and decision.
Decided; definite; incontrovertible.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Determining or having the power to determine an outcome
Used this way, decisive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use decisive
- “A decisive battle is fatal for one side's war chances.”adjective
- “Cast the decisive vote.”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.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A point or fact or remark that settles something conclusively.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: determining or having the power to determine an outcome
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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.