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View synonyms for distinctive

distinctive

[ dih-stingk-tiv ]

adjective

  1. serving to distinguish; characteristic; distinguishing: distinguishing:

    the distinctive stripes of the zebra.

    Synonyms: individual

  2. having a special quality, style, attractiveness, etc.; notable.


distinctive

/ dɪˈstɪŋktɪv /

adjective

  1. serving or tending to distinguish
  2. denoting one of a set of minimal features of a phoneme in a given language that serve to distinguish it from other phonemes. The distinctive features of /p/ in English are that it is voiceless, bilabial, non-nasal, and plosive; /b/ is voiced, bilabial, non-nasal, and plosive: the two differ by the distinctive feature of voice
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • disˈtinctively, adverb
  • disˈtinctiveness, noun
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Other Words From

  • dis·tinctive·ly adverb
  • dis·tinctive·ness noun
  • subdis·tinctive adjective
  • subdis·tinctive·ly adverb
  • subdis·tinctive·ness noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of distinctive1

First recorded in 1575–85; from Medieval Latin distinctīvus; equivalent to distinct + -ive
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Example Sentences

What does matter is the philosophy that the Mach-E will be distinctive, not generic.

I wish schools were better at talking about what makes them distinctive.

From Time

Combined, those efforts made their businesses less distinctive over the years.

If we did not call it snowfall eve, it still seemed worthy of some distinctive designation.

Different colonies have distinctive dialects, often varying in frequency, as can be heard by comparing these soft chirps from two separate colonies.

He reminisces about the features of Texas life that make Texas its own, distinctive community.

He explains that these casks play a huge role “in the distinctive character of the final whisky.”

There are also multiple vectors of cool, each defined by distinctive attire.

Her distinctive shredding can also sound very disturbed, and the more disturbed, the better.

“This is the world we live in,” he says when I ask whether mens fashion will get more distinctive.

Each is surrounded by a gelatinous capsule, which is its distinctive feature (Fig. 9).

In estivo-autumnal malaria the gametes take distinctive ovoid and crescentic forms, and are not difficult to recognize.

The distinction is based chiefly upon etiology, although each type presents a more or less distinctive blood-picture.

The table on the following page contrasts the distinctive blood-changes in the more common conditions.

Although of various qualities, they possess the distinctive flavor which characterizes all tobacco used for this purpose.

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distinctiondistinctive feature