Operative

How to spell operative

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce operative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does operative mean?

1. adjectiveIn effect, functioning, or having the main relevance in a situation.
2. nounA skilled worker, or a person employed as a secret agent or detective.

Operative in a sentence

• adjective

  The new safety regulations became operative at the start of the month.

• noun

  The factory hired another machine operative for the night shift.

• adjective

  The word 'temporary' is the operative term in that contract clause.

• noun

  The agency sent an undercover operative to gather information.

Where does operative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin opus, meaning 'work' or 'labour', whose stem oper- gave the late Latin verb operari, 'to work' or 'to labour', and the late Latin adjective operativus, 'creating effects' or 'working'. English took it in through this route in the early 1600s, first in the sense of something that is actually in force or producing an effect, as when a law or a rule is operative. The same opus root quietly sits inside a whole family of familiar words, including 'operate', 'opera' (literally a 'work' of music), and 'cooperate', which is people working together. The later noun sense of a skilled worker, and then a secret agent or detective, grew up in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the idea of someone who simply works or operates on behalf of another. For spelling, it helps to remember the buried 'oper' of 'operate' followed by the plain ending '-ative', rather than any '-itive'.

How the word is built

• oper- (from Latin opus, oper-: work)
• -ative (adjective/noun suffix meaning relating to or performing)