laxative

Other forms of laxative

plural

laxatives·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about laxative

What does laxative mean?

laxative means "a mild cathartic". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in laxative?

laxative has 3 syllables: lax-a-tive. The stress falls on "lax". In IPA it is /ˈlæksətɪv/.

What is the opposite of laxative?

The recorded antonyms are costive.

Is laxative a common word?

laxative is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.