FromMiddle Frenchpossessif, fromLatinpossessivus(“of or pertaining to possession”), frompossessiō(“possessing”), frompossidēre(“to possess”). Bysurface analysis,possess +‎-ive.

• IPA^(key):/pəˈzɛsɪv/

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ɛsɪv

possessive (comparativemorepossessive,superlativemostpossessive)

1. Of or pertaining toownership orpossession.
2. (grammar) Indicatingownership,possession,origin, etc.
3. Unwilling to yield possession of.

   He is verypossessive of his car.

possessive (countable anduncountable,pluralpossessives)

1. (grammar) Thepossessive case.
2. (grammar) A word used to indicate the possessive case.
   • 2023 June 1, Geoffery Nunberg, “The Nation: Parts of Speech; The Bloody Crossroads of Grammar and Politics”, inThe New York Times‎^[1]:

     Take the rule about pronouns andpossessives that Mr. Keegan cited in his challenge to the testing service.

   • 2024 August 10, Remy Tumin, “Is It Harris’ or Harris’s? Add a Walz, and It’s Even Trickier.”, inThe New York Times‎^[2]:

     The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal all do the opposite, opting for ’s to mark a singularpossessive and a simple apostrophe for pluralpossessive (Harrises’ and Walzes’).

• possessive pronoun
• possessive adjective
• possessive determiner
• possessive suffix
• comitative
• genitive
• ktetic
• proprietive

possessive

1. femininesingular ofpossessif

• Audio:

  (file)

possessive

1. inflection ofpossessiv:
   1. strong/mixednominative/accusativefemininesingular
   2. strongnominative/accusativeplural
   3. weaknominative all-gendersingular
   4. weakaccusativefeminine/neutersingular

possessive

1. feminineplural ofpossessivo

possessīve

1. vocativemasculinesingular ofpossessīvus