Conclusive

How to spell conclusive

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce conclusive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conclusive mean?

1. adjectiveSettling a matter beyond doubt or dispute; decisive and final.

Conclusive in a sentence

• The laboratory tests provided conclusive proof that the sample was contaminated.

• Without conclusive evidence, the jury could not return a guilty verdict.

Where does conclusive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb concludere, meaning 'to shut up' or 'to close completely', formed from con- ('together' or 'fully') and claudere ('to close' or 'to shut'). The past participle stem concludere became conclus-, which gave rise to the noun conclusio, an ending or final settlement, and later the adjective conclusivus. The idea moved naturally from physically closing something to figuratively closing off a question or argument, so that something conclusive leaves no further room for doubt. English took the adjective in during the early 1600s, building on the already familiar verb 'conclude' that had arrived through Latin in the 1400s. The same claudere root that closes things sits inside relatives such as 'include', 'exclude', and 'seclude', and remembering that shared -clus(e) family helps fix the single s spelling rather than a misleading double letter.

How the word is built

• con- (together, fully)
• clus (close/shut, from Latin claudere)
• -ive (adjective suffix)