Divisive

How to spell divisive

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce divisive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does divisive mean?

1. adjectiveTending to cause disagreement or hostility between people or groups.

Divisive in a sentence

• The new parking policy proved deeply divisive among the staff.

• Immigration remains one of the most divisive topics in the election.

Where does divisive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb dividere, meaning 'to force apart' or 'to separate', whose past-participle stem was divisus. From that stem Latin formed divisivus, describing something that splits or partitions. English took the word in during the early 1500s, at first in technical and logical senses about dividing things into parts, and only later settled on the now-dominant meaning of causing disagreement between people. The same dividere root sits inside the everyday words 'divide', 'division', and 'individual' (literally 'not divisible'), which is a useful memory anchor: keep the visible 'divis' of 'division' and simply add '-ive'. The spelling trap is the unstressed second 'i' before the 's', since the word is sounded 'di-VYE-siv' rather than spelled the way it sounds.

How the word is built

• divis- (from Latin dividere/divisus: to divide, force apart)
• -ive (adjective suffix: tending to)