imperative

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See also: impérative

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin imperātīvus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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imperative (comparative more imperative, superlative most imperative)

  1. Essential; crucial; extremely important.
    That you come here right now is imperative.
    • 1941 May, “Jubilee of the City Tube”, in Railway Magazine, page 224:
      Meantime, alterations at King William Street had become imperative, and by December 22, 1895, the station had been remodelled, as at Stockwell, to provide an island platform with lines each side, and a scissors crossing.
    • 2019, Con Man Games, SmashGames, quoting Felix, Kindergarten 2, SmashGames:
      Give this document to Ozzy. It's imperative that he reads and understands it. Got it?
  2. (grammar) Of, or relating to the imperative mood.
  3. (computing theory) Having semantics that incorporates mutable variables.
    Antonym: functional
  4. Expressing a command; authoritatively or absolutely directive.
    imperative orders
    • 1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:
      The suits of kings are imperative.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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imperative (countable and uncountable, plural imperatives)

  1. (uncountable, grammar) The grammatical mood expressing an order (see jussive). In English, the imperative form of a verb is the same as that of the bare infinitive.
    Synonym: imperative mood
    Coordinate terms: assertoric, interrogative
    The verbs in sentences like "Do it!" and "Say what you like!" are in the imperative.
  2. (countable, grammar) A verb in the imperative mood.
  3. (countable) An essential action, a must: something which is imperative.
    Visiting Berlin is an imperative.
    • 2014 March 1, Rupert Christiansen, “English translations rarely sing”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), page R19:
      Anything grandiose or historically based tends to sound flat and banal when it reaches English, partly because translators get stuck between contradictory imperatives: juggling fidelity to the original sense with what is vocally viable, they tend to resort to a genteel fustian which lacks either poetic resonance or demotic realism, adding to a sense of artificiality rather than enhancing credibility.
    • 2020 December 2, Industry Insider, “The costs of cutting carbon”, in Rail, page 76:
      The new imperative for investment is the Government's objective to secure carbon-neutral transport emissions by 2040.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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Italian

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Adjective

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imperative f pl

  1. feminine plural of imperativo

Anagrams

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Latin

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From imperātīvus (“commanded”), from imperō (“command, order”), from im- (form of in) + parō (“prepare, arrange; intend”).

Adverb

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imperātīvē (not comparable)

  1. In an imperative manner, imperatively.
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References

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  • “imperative”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • imperative in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Romanian

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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imperative n pl

  1. indefinite plural of imperativ
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