Objective

How to spell objective

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce objective

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does objective mean?

1. nounA specific aim or goal that someone works towards achieving.
2. adjectiveBased on facts and not influenced by personal feelings or opinions.

Objective in a sentence

• noun

  The main objective of the project was to cut costs by ten percent.

• adjective

  A good auditor stays objective when reviewing the accounts.

• noun

  Each team set a clear objective for the quarter.

• adjective

  The report aimed to give an objective account of what happened.

Where does objective come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb jacere, meaning 'to throw', combined with the prefix ob-, meaning 'towards' or 'against', which together formed objicere, 'to throw before' or 'to put in the way of'. From that came the medieval Latin objectivum, used by scholastic philosophers to describe a thing that is 'thrown before' or presented to the mind, that is, the actual object of thought rather than the thinker's private impression. English took it up in the early 1600s, first as a technical term in logic and optics, then broadening to mean 'a goal aimed at' and 'free from personal bias'. The same ject root that means 'throw' powers a large family of relatives, including 'reject' (throw back), 'project' (throw forward), and 'inject' (throw in). Knowing that the spine of the word is ject, the past of throw, helps fix the spelling and explains the hard c before the t.

How the word is built

• ob- (towards, against)
• ject (from Latin jacere: to throw)
• -ive (adjective/noun suffix)