operative
Effectual or important.
Example
“He's usually in a good mood — the operative word there being "usually". Today was a disaster.”
Other meanings
Functional, in working order.
Having the power of acting; hence, exerting force, physical or moral; active in the production of effects.
“an operative motive”
Related words
- cooperative
- disoperative
- interoperative
- intraoperative
- microoperative
- paraoperative
- perioperative
- peroperative
- reoperative
- transoperative
- unoperative
- co-operative
Word history
From Latin "operātīvus".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “operative” on Wiktionary, by its contributors, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.