RELATIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does relative mean? 

• RELATIVE (noun)
  The noun RELATIVE has 2 senses:

1. a person related by blood or marriage

2. an animal or plant that bears a relationship to another (as related by common descent or by membership in the same genus)

  Familiarity information: RELATIVE used as a noun is rare.

• RELATIVE (adjective)
  The adjective RELATIVE has 2 senses:

1. estimated by comparison; not absolute or complete

2. properly related in size or degree or other measurable characteristics; usually followed by 'to'

  Familiarity information: RELATIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RELATIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person related by blood or marriage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

relation; relative

Context example:

he has distant relations back in New Jersey

Hypernyms ("relative" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "relative"):

agnate; patrikin; patrilineal kin; patrilineal sib; patrisib (one related on the father's side)

better half; married person; mate; partner; spouse (a person's partner in marriage)

sib; sibling (a person's brother or sister)

second cousin (a child of a first cousin of one's parent)

issue; offspring; progeny (the immediate descendants of a person)

next of kin (the person who is (or persons who are) most closely related to a given person)

kissing cousin; kissing kin (a more or less distant relative; familiar enough to be greeted with a kiss)

kinswoman (a female relative)

kinsman (a male relative)

enate; matrikin; matrilineal kin; matrilineal sib; matrisib (one related on the mother's side)

family; kin; kinsperson (a person having kinship with another or others)

blood relation; blood relative; cognate; sib (one related by blood or origin; especially on sharing an ancestor with another)

in-law; relative-in-law (a relative by marriage)

descendant; descendent (a person considered as descended from some ancestor)

cousin; cousin-german; first cousin; full cousin (the child of your aunt or uncle)

ancestor; antecedent; ascendant; ascendent; root (someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent))

Holonyms ("relative" is a member of...):

clan; kin; kin group; kindred; kinship group; tribe (group of people related by blood or marriage)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An animal or plant that bears a relationship to another (as related by common descent or by membership in the same genus)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

congenator; congener; congeneric; relative

Hypernyms ("relative" is a kind of...):

being; organism (a living thing that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently)

• RELATIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Estimated by comparison; not absolute or complete

Synonyms:

comparative; relative

Context example:

a relative stranger

Similar:

relational (having a relation or being related)

Antonym:

absolute (perfect or complete or pure)

Derivation:

relativity (the quality of being relative and having significance only in relation to something else)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Properly related in size or degree or other measurable characteristics; usually followed by 'to'

Synonyms:

proportional; relative

Context example:

earnings relative to production

Similar:

proportionate (being in due proportion)

Derivation:

relativity (the quality of being relative and having significance only in relation to something else)

 Context examples 

There should be at least 3 relatives with an HNPCC-associated cancer (colorectal cancer, cancer of the endometrium, small bowel, ureter, or renal pelvis); 2.

(Amsterdam Criteria II, NCI Thesaurus)

Three affected relatives, 1 of them a first-degree relative of the other 2; 4.

(Amsterdam Criteria, NCI Thesaurus)

To please their relatives, I suppose.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The back is short relative to leg length.

(Anatolian Shepherd Dog, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of relative amount of substance content equivalent to the content at which one gram of mixture contains one thousandth of an equivalent of a component.

(Milliequivalent per Gram, NCI Thesaurus)

I have no relative but the universal mother, Nature: I will seek her breast and ask repose.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Every detail which I had roughly noted from my watch-tower was drawn out in its relative place.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Denoting the front surface of the body; often used to indicate the position of one structure relative to another.

(Anterior, NCI Thesaurus)

It is just as well that we should do business with the male relatives.

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

Scientists were unsure of the relative importance of these different factors.

(NASA Finds Asian Glaciers Slowed by Ice Loss, NASA)