adjective

• 1(of an action or state) marked by the absence or loss of some quality or attribute that is normally present.

  ‘Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Augustine developed two basic inceptions of evil, the privative and the aesthetic.’
  • ‘We could adopt, I suppose, a privative theory of goodness, according to which every good consists in the absence of some corresponding evil.’
  • ‘The good is given many names, amongst them euthymia or cheerfulness, as well as privative terms, e.g. for the absence of fear.’
  • ‘The passage might suggest, however, that privative time is just imaginary.’

  1. 1.1(of a statement or term) denoting the absence or loss of an attribute or quality.
     ‘parliament may insert a privative clause to achieve this result’
     More example sentences

     • ‘I do not think you can even grant such an order if the privative clause operates, can you?’
     • ‘He suggested that a privative clause expands the jurisdiction of a decision-maker.’
     • ‘The privative clause boosts the validity of the decisions made by Refugee Tribunals and by decision-makers in my Department.’
     • ‘That is dependent on the validity of the privative provisions, is it not?’
     • ‘His Honour refers to section 474, your Honour, which was the privative clause.’
  2. 1.2Grammar (of a particle or affix) expressing absence or negation, for example the Greek a-, meaning ‘not’, in atypical.
     ‘The privative and benefactive suffixes should have vowels (a and e) written with underdots.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Has this "a" any connection with the alpha privative of the Indo-European tongues?’