possessive

1. 1.

   the case expressing ownership

   Synonymsgenitivegenitive casepossessive case

   Broaderoblique

   Narrowerattributive genitive

Other forms of possessive

plural

possessives·

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 possessive

What does possessive mean?

possessive means "serving to express or indicate possession". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in possessive?

possessive has 3 syllables: pos-ses-sive. The stress falls on "ses". In IPA it is /pəˈzɛsɪv/.

What is another word for possessive?

Close synonyms include genitive, genitive, genitive case, possessive case. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is possessive a common word?

possessive is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.