possessive

UK:**UK and possibly other pronunciationsUK and possibly other pronunciations/pəˈzɛsɪv/US:USA pronunciation: IPA and respellingUSA pronunciation: IPA/pəˈzɛsɪv/ ,USA pronunciation: respelling(pə zes′iv)


WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
pos•ses•sive /pəˈzɛsɪv/USA pronunciation   adj. 
  1. desiring to dominate and be the only controlling influence on someone:a jealous, possessive husband.
  2. unwilling to share with other people;
    selfish.
  3. Grammar(of a word, construction, or grammatical case) showing possession, ownership, origin, etc., as Jane's in Jane's coat. His in his book is a possessive adjective. His in The book is his is a possessive pronoun. Compare genitive (def. 1).

n. [countable]
  1. Grammarthe possessive case.
  2. Grammara possessive form or phrase.
pos•ses•sive•ly, adv. 
pos•ses•sive•ness, n. [uncountable]

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
pos•ses•sive  (pə zes′iv),USA pronunciation adj. 
  1. jealously opposed to the personal independence of, or to any influence other than one's own upon, a child, spouse, etc.
  2. desirous of possessing, esp. excessively so:Young children are so possessive they will not allow others to play with their toys; a possessive lover.
  3. of or pertaining to possession or ownership.
  4. Grammar
    • indicating possession, ownership, origin, etc. His in his book is a possessive adjective. His in The book is his is a possessive pronoun.
    • noting or pertaining to a case that indicates possession, ownership, origin, etc., as, in English, John's in John's hat.

n. [Gram.]
  1. Grammarthe possessive case.
  2. Grammara form in the possessive.
  • Latin possessīvus. See possess, -ive
  • 1520–30
pos•ses′sive•ly, adv. 
pos•ses′sive•ness, n. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
possessive /pəˈzɛsɪv/ adj
  1. of or relating to possession or ownership
  2. having or showing an excessive desire to possess, control, or dominate: a possessive mother
  3. another word for genitive
  4. denoting an inflected form of a noun or pronoun used to convey the idea of possession, association, etc, as my or Harry's
 n
    • the possessive case
    • a word or speech element in the possessive case
posˈsessively adv posˈsessiveness n
'possessive' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
apostrophe - determiner - jealous - own - poss. - -'s - very - bergamot - complementizer - double genitive - double possessive - each other - else - genitive - her - hers - his - its - ladybird beetle - like - me - mine - my - noun - our - ours - people - pos. - the - their - theirs - thine - thy - we - who - whoever - whose - whosesoever - whosever - whosoever - you - younger - your - yours - S, s - shish kebab - squaresville

Forum discussions with the word(s) "possessive" in the title:


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