Decisive

How to spell decisive

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce decisive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does decisive mean?

1. adjectiveSettling a question or contest conclusively; producing a definite result.
2. adjectiveShowing the ability to make decisions quickly and firmly.

Decisive in a sentence

• The late goal proved decisive in winning the match.

• A good manager has to be decisive when the team is waiting for direction.

• The committee took decisive action to cut the overspending.

• He was calm and decisive throughout the emergency.

Where does decisive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Decisive traces back to the Latin verb decidere, which literally meant 'to cut off' or 'to cut away', built from de- 'off' and caedere 'to cut'. From the idea of cutting through a tangle to settle a matter came the sense of reaching a firm conclusion, and the Latin past participle decisus gave rise to the medieval Latin adjective decisivus, 'serving to settle'. English took the word in through French during the early 1600s, where it carried the meaning of something that ends doubt or determines an outcome. The same caedere root, meaning 'to cut', also hides inside relatives such as 'concise', 'incision', and 'scissors', which is a useful reminder that the soft middle of decisive is a c, not an s. Over time the word also came to describe a person who makes up their mind quickly and without hesitation.

How the word is built

• de- (off, away)
• cis (from caedere: to cut)
• -ive (adjective suffix, tending to)