US /ˈæd.ɪ.tɪv/ UK /ˈæd.ɪ.tɪv/
adj noun Freq #45911

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    A substance added to food, fuel, or another product to give it certain qualities.

    This juice contains no artificial colours or additives.

  2. 2
    adj

    Produced by adding things together; involving addition.

    The final cost is additive, built up from many small charges.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · a substance added to food,... temper
Word family
Forms additives
Derived forms additivelyadditivenessadditivismadelecycloadditivegeoadditiveheteroadditivehypoadditiveinteradditivenonadditiveoveradditivephytoadditive
Related forms additivity

Etymology

From Late Latin additivus, from the participial stem of Latin addere (“to add”).

View etymology graph ->

Topics

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