- 1done or shared by all members of a group of people; involving a whole group or society collective leadership/decision-making/responsibility collective memory (= things that a group of people or a community know or remember, that are often passed from parents to children)
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- 2used to refer to all members of a group The collective name for mast, boom, and sails on a boat is the “rig.”
adverb the collectively agreed-on rate We have had a successful year, both collectively and individually. rain, snow, and hail, collectively known as “precipitation” (= as a group)See collective in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
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