conjunctive

/kənˈdʒʌŋ(k)tɪv/

Other forms: conjunctively; conjunctives

Something that's conjunctive tends to connect or combine two things. A conjunctive effort between two people is a combined attempt to get something done, and the word "and" in this very sentence is conjunctive since it's joining two phrases together.

The word conjunctive often comes up in medical terminology, in phrases like "conjunctive tissue," or tissue that connects different parts of the body. Another kind of conjunctive is a part of speech — like the words "but" and "or" — that connects phrases or words within a sentence. Conjunctive comes from the Latin word coniunctivus, "serving to connect," with its root of coniungere, "to join together."

Definitions of conjunctive

1. adjective

   serving or tending to connect
   synonyms:

   copulative

   syntactically connecting sentences or elements of a sentence

   connective

   connecting or tending to connect

   antonyms:

   disjunctive

   serving or tending to divide or separate

   adversative, oppositive

   expressing antithesis or opposition

   alternative

   necessitating a choice between mutually exclusive possibilities

   contrastive

   syntactically establishing a relation of contrast between sentences or elements of a sentence

   divisional

   serving to divide or marking a division

   partitive, separative

   serving to separate or divide into parts

   separative

   (used of an accent in Hebrew orthography) indicating that the word marked is separated to a greater or lesser degree rhythmically and grammatically from the word that follows it
2. noun

   an uninflected function word that serves to conjoin words or phrases or clauses or sentences
   synonyms: conjunction, connective, continuative

   types:

   coordinating conjunction

   a conjunction (like `and' or `or') that connects two identically constructed grammatical constituents

   subordinate conjunction, subordinating conjunction

   a conjunction (like `since' or `that' or `who') that introduces a dependent clause

   type of:

   closed-class word, function word

   a word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning
3. adjective

   involving the joint activity of two or more
   “the conjunctive focus of political opposition”

   synonyms: concerted, conjunct, cooperative

   joint

   united or combined