Aggressive

How to spell aggressive

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce aggressive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aggressive mean?

1. adjectiveBehaving in a hostile, forceful, or confrontational way, ready to attack or confront.
2. adjectiveEnergetic, bold, and determined in pursuing a goal, without necessarily implying hostility.

Aggressive in a sentence

• The neighbour's dog became aggressive whenever strangers approached the gate.

• The company adopted an aggressive marketing strategy to win back customers.

• His aggressive tone during the meeting made the rest of the team uncomfortable.

• Doctors recommended an aggressive course of treatment to stop the infection spreading.

Where does aggressive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb aggredi, meaning 'to approach' or 'to attack', which combined ad- ('toward') with gradi ('to step or walk'). The prefix ad- assimilated to ag- before the g, which is exactly why the modern spelling carries a doubled g, the single most common trap in writing the word. The Latin past participle aggressus gave rise to the noun aggressio, an 'attack' or 'onset', and English drew on this family in the seventeenth century, with 'aggressive' settling in by the early nineteenth century to describe forceful or hostile behaviour. The same gradi root, meaning to step, still walks through everyday relatives such as 'progress' (a stepping forward), 'gradual' (by small steps), and 'digress' (to step away). Remembering that the prefix ad- collapsed into ag- before the root helps fix the two g's in place.

How the word is built

• ag- (toward, assimilated form of ad-)
• gress (from Latin gradi, to step or advance)
• -ive (adjective suffix)