Comparative

How to spell comparative

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce comparative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does comparative mean?

1. adjectiveMeasured or judged by comparison with something else; relative.
2. nounThe form of an adjective or adverb expressing a greater degree, such as 'taller' or 'more careful'.

Comparative in a sentence

• adjective

  The report studied the comparative costs of renting versus buying a home.

• noun

  The word 'better' is the comparative of 'good', not its superlative.

• adjective

  She enjoyed the comparative calm of the office after the busy factory floor.

• noun

  Students learned to form the comparative by adding the ending '-er' to short adjectives.

Where does comparative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin comparativus, an adjective meaning 'serving for comparison', which was built on the verb comparare, 'to pair together' or 'to liken'. That verb in turn joined the prefix com-, meaning 'together', with par, the Latin word for 'equal', so at root the idea is of placing things side by side as equals to judge them. English took the word in during the late 1400s, partly through Old French comparatif, and applied it both to grammar (the comparative degree of an adjective, as in 'faster' or 'better') and to the broader sense of judgement by comparison. The same par 'equal' root still surfaces in everyday words like 'par', 'parity', and 'compare' itself. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: the schwa sounds tempt writers, but remembering 'compare' plus '-ative' keeps the vowels in order.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• par (equal, from Latin par 'equal')
• -ative (adjective/noun suffix)