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reactive

adjective

Simple meaning

Reacting to the past rather than anticipating the future, not predictive.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

reeaktiv

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ɹiˈæktɪv

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. chemistry

    That readily takes part in reactions.

  2. That reacts or responds to a stimulus.

  3. chemistry

    Participating readily in reactions

  4. Reacting to the past rather than anticipating the future, not predictive.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

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More ways to use reactive

  • “Sodium is a reactive metal.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

reactive powerreactive depressionreactive arthritishighly reactivereactive oxygenreactive proteinless reactivereactive species

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • reactornounPerson or profession · specialist

    An electrical device used to introduce reactance into a circuit.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • reactive depressionnounCompound term

    An inappropriate state of depression that is precipitated by events in the person's life (to be distinguished from normal grief).

  • reactive schizophrenianounCompound term

    Schizophrenia of abrupt onset and relatively short duration (a few weeks or months).

  • c-reactive proteinnounCompound term

    A byproduct of inflammation.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: that readily takes part in reactions

unreactive

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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.