imperative
See also: impérative
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from Latin imperātīvus.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
imperative (comparative more imperative, superlative most imperative)
- Essential; crucial; extremely important.
- That you come here right now is imperative.
- 2019, Con Man Games; SmashGames, quoting Felix, Kindergarten 2, SmashGames:
- Give this document to Ozzy. It's imperative that he reads and understands it. Got it?
- (grammar) Of, or relating to the imperative mood.
- (computing theory) Having semantics that incorporates mutable variables.
- Antonym: functional
- Expressing a command; authoritatively or absolutely directive.
- imperative orders
- 1614, Joseph Hall, Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old and New Testaments
- The suits of kings are imperative.
TranslationsEdit
essential
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grammar: of, or relating to the imperative mood
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computing: having semantics that incorporates mutable variables
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authoritatively or absolutely directive
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NounEdit
imperative (countable and uncountable, plural imperatives)
- (uncountable, grammar) The grammatical mood expressing an order (see jussive). In English, the imperative form of a verb is the same as that of the bare infinitive.
- The verbs in sentences like "Do it!" and "Say what you like!" are in the imperative.
- (countable, grammar) A verb in imperative mood.
- (countable) An essential action, a must: something which is imperative.
- Visiting Berlin is an imperative.
- 2014 March 1, Rupert Christiansen, “English translations rarely sing”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), page R19:
- Anything grandiose or historically based tends to sound flat and banal when it reaches English, partly because translators get stuck between contradictory imperatives: juggling fidelity to the original sense with what is vocally viable, they tend to resort to a genteel fustian which lacks either poetic resonance or demotic realism, adding to a sense of artificiality rather than enhancing credibility.
- 2020 December 2, Industry Insider, “The costs of cutting carbon”, in Rail, page 76:
- The new imperative for investment is the Government's objective to secure carbon-neutral transport emissions by 2040.
SynonymsEdit
- (grammatical mood) imperative mood
- required
Coordinate termsEdit
- (in grammar): assertoric, interrogative
Derived termsEdit
- categorical imperative
- first imperative (Latin grammar)
- moral imperative
- second imperative (Latin grammar)
TranslationsEdit
imperative mood — see imperative mood
verb in imperative
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essential action
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ItalianEdit
AdjectiveEdit
imperative f pl
AnagramsEdit
LatinEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From imperātīvus (“commanded”), from imperō (“command, order”), from im- (form of in) + parō (“prepare, arrange; intend”).
AdverbEdit
imperātīvē (not comparable)
- In an imperative manner, imperatively.
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- imperative in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- imperative in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
RomanianEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
imperative n pl