Definition of Purposive

1. Adjective. Having or showing or acting with a purpose or design. "Purposive behavior"

Similar to: Nonrandom

2. Adjective. Having a purpose. "Purposive behavior"
Exact synonyms: Goal-directed
Similar to: Purposeful

Definition of Purposive

1. a. Having or indicating purpose or design.

Definition of Purposive

1. Adjective. Serving a particular purpose; adapted to a given purpose, especially through natural evolution. (defdate from 19th c.) ¹

2. Adjective. Done or performed with a conscious purpose or intent. (defdate from 19th c.) ¹

3. Adjective. (psychology) Pertaining to purpose, as reflected in behaviour or mental activity. (defdate from 19th c.) ¹

4. Adjective. Relating to purpose. (defdate from 19th c.) ¹

5. Adjective. Possessed of a firm purpose; determined, resolute. (defdate from 20th c.) ¹

6. Adjective. (grammar) Of a clause or conjunction: expressing purpose. (defdate from 20th c.) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Purposive

1. [adj]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Purposive

purposed
purposedly
purposeful
purposeful availment
purposefully
purposefulness
purposeless
purposelessly
purposelessness
purposely
purposer
purposers
purposes
purposeth
purposing
purposive (current term)
purposive approach
purposively
purposiveness
purposivenesses
purpre
purpresture
purprestures
purprise
purprises
purpura
purpura hemorrhagica
purpuras
purpurate
purpurates

Literary usage of Purposive

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Psychology, General and Applied by Hugo Münsterberg (1914)
"CHAPTER XXII THE SOUL purposive Acts and Causality. ... This problem of connection must be the central one for the theory of purposive psychology, too. ..."

2. Psychology, General and Applied by Hugo Münsterberg (1914)
"History and purposive Psychology.—AY e have ignored so far one other reason why ... Such a historian is convinced that the purposive view of history alone ..."

3. Psychology, General and Applied by Hugo Münsterberg (1914)
"CHAPTER XXII THE SOUL purposive Acts and Causality. ... This problem of connection must be the central one for the theory of purposive psychology, too. ..."

4. Pragmatism and the Problem of the Idea by John Thomas Driscoll (1915)
"The evolutive process is purposive and thus differs from Spencer's which is ... But we are "interested and purposive and desirous of operating and ..."

5. Pragmatism and the Problem of the Idea by John Thomas Driscoll (1915)
"The evolutive process is purposive and thus differs from Spencer's which is ... But we are "interested and purposive and desirous of operating and ..."

6. Clinical Studies in Vice and in Insanity by George Robert Wilson (1899)
"Reduction of Character in Drunkenness by Impairment of the purposive Functions. ... This loss occurs in the realm of what may be called the purposive ..."

7. Psychology: A Study of Mental Life by Robert Sessions Woodworth (1921)
"purposive BEHAVIOR Now it would be a great mistake to rule these purposeful individuals out of ... Third, what persists, in purposive behavior, is the tend- ..."

8. First Steps in Mental Growth: A Series of Studies in the Psychology of Infancy by David R. Major (1906)
"purposive imitation. — In the closing months of the first year, ... Now, his mimetic responses seem more like purposive, voluntary acts of the child's. ..."

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