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relative

noun · adjective · adverb

Simple meaning

Someone connected by blood, marriage.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rehluhtiv

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹɛlətɪv

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.

noun

  1. A person related by blood or marriage

    “Police are searching for relatives of the deceased.”

  2. Someone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption; someone in the same family.

  3. figurative

    Something kindred or related to something else.

adjective

  1. Connected to or depending on something else; comparative.

  2. Capable to be changed by other beings or circumstance; conditional.

adverb

  1. us

    In a relative manner; with reference to environment or competition; contextually or comparatively.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

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More ways to use relative

  • “Police are searching for relatives of the deceased.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

relative humidityrelative frequencyrelative riskrelative strengthrelative importancerelative positionrelative valuerelative size

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • relativelyadverbDerived adverb

    In a relative manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • relative incidencenounCompound term

    The relative frequency of occurrence of something.

  • relative majoritynounCompound term

    The number of votes for the candidate or party receiving the greatest number (but less that half of the votes).

  • relative molecular massnounCompound term

    The sum of the relative atomic masses of the constituent atoms of a molecule.

  • relative pronounnounCompound term

    A pronoun (as `that' or `which' or `who') that introduces a relative clause referring to some antecedent.

  • relative quantitynounCompound term

    A quantity relative to some purpose.

  • relative atomic massnounCompound term

    The mass of an atom of a chemical element expressed in atomic mass units.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • relativitynounRelated term

    The theory that space and time are relative concepts rather than absolute concepts.

  • relativismnounRelated term

    The philosophical doctrine that all criteria of judgment are relative to the individuals and situations involved.

  • relativistic massnounRelated term

    The mass of a body in motion relative to the observer: it is equal to the rest mass multiplied by a factor that is greater than 1 and that increases as the magnitude of the velocity…

  • relativity theorynounRelated term

    The theory that space and time are relative concepts rather than absolute concepts.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: connected to or depending on something else

absolute

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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.