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''discursive'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260915190735-00-⌔

discursive - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

discursive (comparative more discursive, superlative most discursive)

  • Of or concerning discourse.
    • (of speech or writing) Tending to digress from the main point.
      • ✤ Synonyms: digressive, rambling; discoursive (archaic)
      • ✤ This period had long since passed; the discursive reading, the enlightened discourse of her grandfather, had cast her mind in a different mould to the usual superstition of her country; but faith and love were only more pure and perfect in a soul too innocent not to be religious.1
      • ✤ This means, at times, long and perhaps overly discursive discussions of other taxa.2
    • (philosophy) Using reason and argument rather than intuition.
      • ✤ Synonym: discoursive (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French discursif, formed from the stem of Latin discursus and the suffix -if, and in part borrowed from Medieval Latin discursivus. By surface analysis, discourse +‎ -ive.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /dɪsˈkɜː(ɹ)sɪv/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)sɪv

Printed 2026-09-15.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 185: ↩

  2. 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii: ↩

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Secondary

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