- [not usually before noun] ready to be used; in use synonym functional
- This law becomes operative immediately.
- The station will be fully operative again in January.
- an agreement/an accord/a proposal/a tax/a rule/an amendment/an act becomes operative
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- become
- remain
- …
- fully
- [only before noun] (medical) connected with a medical operation
- operative treatment
Word Originlate Middle English: from late Latin operativus, from Latin operat- ‘done by labour’, from the verb operari, from opus, oper- ‘work’.
Idioms
See operative in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee operative in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishthe operative word
- used to emphasize that a particular word or phrase is the most important one in a sentence
- I was in love with her—‘was’ being the operative word.
- He seemed nice. But ‘seemed’ was the operative word.
Check pronunciation:
operative