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vocative

/ˈvɑkətɪv/adjective, noun

vocative is an adjective meaning “Of or pertaining to calling; used in calling or vocation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-O-C-A-T-I-V-E, and it appears about once in every 13 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does vocative mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or pertaining to calling; used in calling or vocation.

  2. 2

    Used in address; appellative; said of the case or form of the noun, pronoun, or adjective by which a person or thing is addressed.

    In English, the vocative may be indicated by an addressee–address separation comma, or by the particle O, as in "What is the matter, sir?", "Mother, listen!", or "O Lord".

noun

  1. 1

    The vocative case

  2. 2

    A word in the vocative case

  3. 3

    A vocative expression

  4. 4

    rareSomething said to (or as though to) a particular person or thing; an entreaty, an invocation.

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

How do you pronounce vocative?

  • US /ˈvɑkətɪv/
  • US /ˈvoʊkətɪv/
  • UK /ˈvɒkətɪv/

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

Forms of vocative

  • more vocative comparative
  • most vocative superlative
  • vocatives plural

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

How common is vocative?

Vocative appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd 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).

How do you abbreviate vocative?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of vocative: voc..

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

Vocative in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvocationnel (of or pertaining to calling), vocatif (grammar: used in address), apostrophe (a vocative expression)
Germanaufrufend (of or pertaining to calling), vokativ (grammar: used in address)
Portuguesevocativo (of or pertaining to calling)
Spanishvocativo (grammar: used in address)

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 vocative come from?

From Late Middle English [Term?], borrowed from Middle French vocatif, from Latin vocātīvus (“for calling”); a calque of Ancient Greek κλητῐκή (klētĭkḗ, “for calling; vocative case”) – from vocāre (“to call”), from Proto-Indo-European *wokʷ-, o-grade of *wekʷ- (“give vocal utterance, speak”). See Latin vōx.

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