- considered and judged by being compared with something else
- You must consider the relative merits of the two plans.
- We need to assess the relative importance of each of these factors.
- We need to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of each system.
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- (grammar) referring to an earlier noun, sentence or part of a sentence
- In ‘the man who came’, ‘who’ is a relative pronoun and ‘who came’ is a relative clause.
- [only before noun] that exists or that has a particular quality only when compared with something else synonym comparative
- They now live in relative comfort (= compared with how they lived before).
- We won the game with relative ease.
- Given the failure of the previous plan, this turned out to be a relative success.
- It's all relative though, isn't it? We never had any money when I was a kid and $500 was a fortune to us.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French relatif, -ive, from late Latin relativus ‘having reference or relation’, from the verb referre ‘carry back’, from re- ‘back’ + ferre ‘bring’.
Idioms
See relative in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee relative in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishrelative to somebody/something
- in comparison with somebody/something else; in relation to somebody/something
- the position of the sun relative to the earth
- The movements of the continents relative to each other can be measured.
- The company employs too many people relative to the size of its business.
- having a connection with somebody/something; concerning somebody/something
- He may have information relative to the case.
Check pronunciation:
relative