INSTRUCTIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does instructive mean? 

• INSTRUCTIVE (adjective)
  The adjective INSTRUCTIVE has 1 sense:

1. serving to instruct or enlighten or inform

  Familiarity information: INSTRUCTIVE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSTRUCTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Serving to instruct or enlighten or inform

Synonyms:

informative; instructive

Similar:

clarifying; elucidative (that makes clear)

demonstrative; illustrative (serving to demonstrate)

didactic; didactical (instructive (especially excessively))

doctrinaire (stubbornly insistent on theory without regard for practicality or suitability)

educative (resulting in education)

educational (providing knowledge)

explanatory (serving or intended to explain or make clear)

expositive; expository (serving to expound or set forth)

interpretative; interpretive (that provides interpretation)

ostensive (manifestly demonstrative)

preachy (inclined to or marked by tedious moralization)

Also:

informative; informatory (providing or conveying information)

Antonym:

uninstructive (failing to instruct)

Derivation:

instruct (impart skills or knowledge to)

 Context examples 

“This is most interesting and instructive,” said he.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I must congratulate you, Inspector, on handling so distinctive and instructive a case.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, there is nothing very instructive in all this.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Please, ma'am, could I inquire if this highly instructive and charming institution is a new one?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Simple as the case is, there have been one or two very instructive details in connection with it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“A simple case, and yet, in some ways, an instructive one,” Holmes remarked, as we travelled back to town.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the maiden herself was most instructive.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With a spud, a tin box, and an elementary book on botany, there are instructive days to be spent.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Aunt woke up and, being more good-natured after her nap, told me to read a bit and show what frivolous work I preferred to the worthy and instructive Belsham.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Let us enjoy five minutes of instructive conversation with her.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)