REFLEXIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does reflexive mean? 

• REFLEXIVE (noun)
  The noun REFLEXIVE has 1 sense:

1. a personal pronoun compounded with -self to show the agent's action affects the agent

  Familiarity information: REFLEXIVE used as a noun is very rare.

• REFLEXIVE (adjective)
  The adjective REFLEXIVE has 2 senses:

1. without volition or conscious control

2. referring back to itself

  Familiarity information: REFLEXIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REFLEXIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A personal pronoun compounded with -self to show the agent's action affects the agent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

reflexive; reflexive pronoun

Hypernyms ("reflexive" is a kind of...):

personal pronoun (a pronoun expressing a distinction of person)

Derivation:

reflexive (referring back to itself)

• REFLEXIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without volition or conscious control

Synonyms:

automatic; reflex; reflexive

Context example:

sneezing is reflexive

Similar:

involuntary (controlled by the autonomic nervous system; without conscious control)

Domain category:

physiology (the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Referring back to itself

Synonyms:

reflexive; self-referent

Similar:

backward (directed or facing toward the back or rear)

Domain category:

grammar (the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics))

Derivation:

reflexive (a personal pronoun compounded with -self to show the agent's action affects the agent)

reflexiveness; reflexivity ((logic and mathematics) a relation such that it holds between an element and itself)