Reflective

How to spell reflective

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reflective

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reflective mean?

1. adjectiveInclined to think deeply and carefully about things.
2. adjectiveAble to throw back light, heat, or sound from a surface.

Reflective in a sentence

• After the long project she was in a quiet, reflective mood.

• Cyclists wear reflective strips so drivers can see them at night.

• The manager kept a reflective journal to review each working week.

• The safety vest used a reflective coating to catch headlights.

Where does reflective come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb reflectere, which combined re-, meaning 'back', with flectere, meaning 'to bend' or 'to turn', so the literal idea was 'to bend back'. That image fits both modern senses neatly: light bends back off a shiny surface, and a thoughtful person turns their mind back over an experience. The verb 'reflect' came into English through Old French in the late 1300s, and the adjective 'reflective' followed by adding the Latin-derived ending -ive, which forms adjectives describing a tendency or quality. The same flectere root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'flexible', 'deflect' and 'inflection', all of which carry that sense of bending or turning. Remembering that the middle is 'flect', the bending part, helps keep the spelling steady before the -ive ending.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• flect (bend, from Latin flectere)
• -ive (adjective suffix)