causative
causative Lexical Profile
causative Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Acting as a cause or producer of a specific effect, condition, or phenomenon (especially in medicine and biology).
"Researchers finally isolated the causative bacterium responsible for the respiratory outbreak."
Expressing causation or indicating that a subject causes someone or something else to perform an action or enter a state (in grammar and linguistics).
"In the sentence 'She made him laugh,' the verb 'make' functions as a causative verb."
• noun
A grammatical form, verb, or construction that indicates that a subject causes an action to happen or brings about a state.
"Many languages form the causative by adding a morphological affix directly to the verb stem."
Word Nuance & Usage
While 'causal' refers broadly to the relationship between cause and effect (e.g., 'a causal link'), 'causative' specifically identifies the active agent or factor that directly produces an effect (e.g., 'a causative organism') or a grammatical form expressing causation.
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late Middle English period from Middle French causatif or directly from Late Latin causativus ('pertaining to a cause'), derived from Latin causa ('cause, reason').