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predicative

/ˈpɹɛd.ɪ.kə.tɪv/adjective, noun

predicative is an adjective meaning “Modifying a noun from within a predicate” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-R-E-D-I-C-A-T-I-V-E and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 13 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does predicative mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Modifying a noun from within a predicate.

    in predicative position

noun

  1. 1

    An element of the predicate of a sentence which complements the subject or object by means of the verb. Predicatives may be nominal or adjectival.

  2. 2

    In some languages, a special part of speech used as a predicate and denoting a state of being.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce predicative?

  • UK /ˈpɹɛd.ɪ.kə.tɪv/
  • US /ˈpɹɛd.ɪ.kə.tɪv/
  • US [ˈpɹɛd.ɪ.kə.ɾɪv]

Predicative has 4 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-predicative.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-StuckInLagToad-predicative.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of predicative

  • predicatives plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is predicative?

Predicative appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 107,757th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Predicative in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchattributif (used after a verb), attribut (element of the predicate of a sentence which…)
Germanprädikativ (used after a verb), Prädikativum, Prädikativ (element of the predicate of a sentence which…)
Portuguesepredicativo (used after a verb)
Spanishpredicativo (used after a verb), complemento predicativo (element of the predicate of a sentence which…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does predicative come from?

From predicate + -ive.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).