What does genitive mean?

Definitions for genitive
ˈdʒɛn ɪ tɪvgen·i·tive

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word genitive.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. genitive, genitive case, possessive, possessive caseadjective

    the case expressing ownership

  2. possessive, genitiveadjective

    serving to express or indicate possession

    "possessive pronouns"; "the genitive endings"

Wiktionary

  1. genitivenoun

    An inflection pattern (of any given language) that expresses origin or ownership and possession.

  2. genitivenoun

    A word inflected in the genitive case; a word indicating origin, ownership or possession.

  3. genitiveadjective

    Of or pertaining to that case (as the second case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expresses origin or possession. It corresponds to the possessive case in English.

  4. Etymology: From Renaissance Latin casus genitivus, literally "case pertaining to origin, birth", from genitus the perfect passive participle of gigno.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Genitiveadjective

    In grammar, the name of a case, which, among other relations, signifies one begotten, as, the father of a son;

    Etymology: genitivus, Latin.

Wikipedia

  1. genitive

    In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated gen) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. For example, some verbs may feature arguments in the genitive case; and the genitive case may also have adverbial uses (see adverbial genitive). Genitive construction includes the genitive case, but is a broader category. Placing a modifying noun in the genitive case is one way of indicating that it is related to a head noun, in a genitive construction. However, there are other ways to indicate a genitive construction. For example, many Afroasiatic languages place the head noun (rather than the modifying noun) in the construct state. Possessive grammatical constructions, including the possessive case, may be regarded as a subset of genitive construction. For example, the genitive construction "pack of dogs" is similar, but not identical in meaning to the possessive case "dogs' pack" (and neither of these is entirely interchangeable with "dog pack", which is neither genitive nor possessive). Modern English is an example of a language that has a possessive case rather than a conventional genitive case. That is, Modern English indicates a genitive construction with either the possessive clitic suffix "-'s", or a prepositional genitive construction such as "x of y". However, some irregular English pronouns do have possessive forms which may more commonly be described as genitive (see English possessive). The names of the astronomical constellations have genitive forms which are used in star names, for example the star Mintaka in the constellation Orion (genitive Orionis) is also known as Delta Orionis or 34 Orionis. Many languages have a genitive case, including Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Georgian, German, Greek, Gothic, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Nepali, Romanian, Sanskrit, Scottish Gaelic, Swedish, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish and all Slavic languages except Bulgarian and Macedonian.

ChatGPT

  1. genitive

    The genitive is a grammatical case that primarily shows a relationship of possession or ownership. It is used in various languages, including English, to indicate relationships between nouns, typically with meanings such as ownership ('John's book'), composition ('a group of students') or origin ('the city of Paris'). In some languages, it also includes objectives of verbs and prepositions and descriptions of characteristics.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Genitiveadjective

    of or pertaining to that case (as the second case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expresses source or possession. It corresponds to the possessive case in English

  2. Genitivenoun

    the genitive case

  3. Etymology: [L. genitivus, fr. gignere, genitum, to beget: cf. F. gnitif. See Gender.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Genitive

    jen′i-tiv, adj. (gram.) applied to a case properly denoting the class or kind to which a thing belongs, represented in modern English by the possessive case.—adj. Genitī′val. [L. genitivus (gignĕre, genitum, to beget), as if indicating origin, a mistranslation of Gr. genikosgenos, a class.]

Matched Categories

How to pronounce genitive?

How to say genitive in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of genitive in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of genitive in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Popularity rank by frequency of use

genitive#10000#74168#100000

Translations for genitive

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for genitive »

Translation

Find a translation for the genitive definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"genitive." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/genitive>.

Discuss these genitive definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for genitive? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    genitive

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    anything that provides inspiration for later work
    A contempt
    B sheath
    C germ
    D helm

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for genitive: