collective

Pluralcollectives

1. 1
   adjective

   Formed by gathering or collecting separate things into a single mass, sum, or body.

   The collective effort of hundreds of volunteers cleared the entire beach by noon.

   Economists tracked the collective output of the region's small farms over a decade.

   Similaraggregated, congregated

   Oppositeindividual, separate

   Note

   The root sense, and the one where the word's history shows through: Latin collēctīvus, from colligō, built from com- "together" and legō "I gather". Something collective is the sum that results, as in the collective body of a nation, collective effort or collective output. Aggregated and congregated are close in meaning, but collective is the everyday choice and normally stands before its noun.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A group of people united by and working toward a particular cause or interest.

   The writers' collective published its first anthology last spring.

   A small housing collective near the river manages its own repairs and budgets.

   Similarcooperative, co-op, commune, group, association

   Note

   The broadest noun sense, extended from shared ownership to any group bound by a common purpose. Its home today is the arts: art collectives, creative collectives, writers' collectives. Holland Cotter, writing in The New York Times in 2006, describes art collectives built on the idea that information is power. In 2021 Adam Bradley lists what such groups do together: create, tour, exhibit, live.

3. 3
   adjective

   Arising from more than one origin, or shared among multiple holders of authority.

   Under collective leadership, no single official could override the others.

   The treaty established collective authority over the disputed waters.

   Similarjoint, shared, common, communal

   Oppositeindividual, sole

4. 4
   adjective

   Tending to gather things together, or forming them into a collection.

   A collective tendency in pack animals drives them to hoard surplus food.

   The archive's collective function steadily forms a record of every local event.

   Similaracquisitive, accumulative

   Note

   An older, active use: here the thing does the gathering rather than being gathered. Edward Young's The Complaint (1743) imagines "a central point, collective of his sons", a point that draws them in. Notice that the adjective takes an object with of, the way a gathering verb would. That construction marks this sense off from the familiar one.

5. 5
   adjective

   Naming a group or aggregate of individuals through a single grammatical form.

   A collective noun such as 'committee' can take either a singular or plural verb.

   English grammar treats 'jury' as a collective form standing for many individuals.

   Note

   Grammar's term for a singular form that stands for many, such as committee, jury or herd. Its practical consequence is agreement. When the group acts as one body, a singular verb follows (the jury has decided). When its members are in view, a plural is possible (the jury are divided). The verb you choose, not the noun, signals which reading you mean.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A noun or name that refers to a group of individuals as a single unit.

   Writers often pair a collective with a singular verb for a formal effect.

   The sentence sounded odd because the collective took a plural verb.

   Note

   Grammarians' shorthand: the noun is simply collective noun with the noun dropped, so a collective is any word like committee or herd. It shares everything with the grammatical adjective, including the choice between singular and plural verbs. Its plural is collectives, which can be ambiguous on a page that also discusses art groups or farms.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   One of several farms owned and managed by the community through the state.

   Each family on the collective received a share of the season's harvest.

   The state merged the village's fields into a single collective after the revolution.

   Similarcommune

   Note

   Here the ownership runs through the state. The community holds the land, but the state is the channel, which is why the word belongs especially to communist countries. That sets it apart from the jointly owned farm, where a group of people own the land among themselves with no state in between. People live and work on a collective, not in one, and the plural is collectives.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A farm that is owned jointly by a group of people.

   Several families bought the orchard and ran it as a collective.

   Profits from the collective were split evenly among the owners.

   Similarcooperative, co-op, commune

9. 9
   nouncountable

   The lever a helicopter pilot uses to control the aircraft's ascent or descent.

   Raising the collective increased lift and the helicopter began to climb.

   A sudden pull on the collective sent the aircraft upward sharply.

   Note

   A pilot's term named for what it does. The lever changes the pitch of all the main rotor blades together, collectively, raising or lowering total lift. Its partner is the cyclic, and the FAA's Helicopter Flying Handbook draws the division neatly: the collective governs hover height, ascent and descent, while the cyclic governs position and direction. Pilots raise, lower or hold the collective.

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