divisive

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dīvīsīvus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈvaɪsɪv/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /dɪˈvaɪsɪv/, /dɪˈvɪsɪv/, /dɪˈvɪzɪv/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪsɪv

Adjective

divisive (comparative more divisive, superlative most divisive)

1. Having a quality that divides or separates.

   Synonyms: disunifying, polarizing

   Antonym: unifying

   Rather than fostering unity, he becomes divisive.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 6, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk), page 66:

     [W]hat a change has introduced itself everywhere into human affairs! [...] all is grown acrid, divisive, threatening dissolution; [...]

Antonyms

• combinative
• agglomerative

Derived terms

• divisively
• divisiveness
• indivisive
• subdivisive
• undivisive

Translations

having a quality that divides or separates

Finnish: erottava (fi), hajottava (fi), erimielisyyttä aiheuttava (causing disunity), mielipiteitä jakava (dividing opinions) French: clivant (fr) German: spaltend (de), entzweiend (de), teilend (de) Hungarian: megosztó (hu) Italian: please add this translation if you can Japanese: 分割的な (bunkatsuteki na) Macedonian: раздорен (razdoren) Malayalam: ഭിന്നിപ്പിക്കുന്ന (bhinnippikkunna) Polish: dzielący (pl) m, rozdzielający (pl) m Portuguese: please add this translation if you can Romanian: please add this translation if you can Russian: раскольнический (ru) (raskolʹničeskij) Spanish: divisivo