collective

USkuh-LEK-tiv/kəˈlɛktɪv/

10 meanings of collective

1
adjective
Made by joining or adding many separate things into one whole.
Like many small streams joining to form one big river.
The collective weight of all the boxes was too much for one person.
Their collective savings were finally enough to buy a small house.
Similaraggregated, congregated
Oppositeindividual, separate
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2
nouncountable
A group of people who work together for a shared cause or interest.
Like a club where everyone helps with the same goal.
The artists formed a collective to share studio space and costs.
She joined a local food collective that buys vegetables in bulk.
Similarcooperative, co-op, commune, group, association
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3
adjective
Coming from or shared among more than one person or source.
Like a rule that needs everyone to agree, not just one person.
The decision was collective, made by everyone on the team.
They hold collective control over how the company is run.
Similarjoint, shared, common, communal
Oppositeindividual, sole
4
adjective
Likely to gather things together, or forming a collection of them.
Like a magnet that keeps pulling small bits of metal toward it.
The bird has a collective habit, gathering bright things for its nest.
Their collective nature means they save almost everything they find.
Similaracquisitive, accumulative
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5
adjective
Describing a single word that names a whole group of things at once.
Like the word 'bunch': one word that means many things together.
'Family' is a collective noun because it names many people as one.
We use a collective term like 'flock' to talk about many birds at once.
Note
6
nouncountable
A word that names a whole group of things as one thing.
Like the word 'team' standing in for every single player.
'Herd' is a collective that stands for many cows together.
Teachers explain that 'crowd' works as a collective for a mass of people.
Note
7
nouncountable
A farm owned and run by a community under the control of the state.
Like a big farm that a whole village owns together.
Her grandparents worked on a collective during the 1950s.
The government turned hundreds of small farms into one large collective.
Similarcommune
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8
nouncountable
A farm that a group of people own together.
Like a garden that several neighbors own and tend together.
They pooled their money and started a collective on the old dairy land.
The collective grows vegetables that all the members share.
Similarcooperative, co-op, commune
9
nouncountable
A lever a helicopter pilot uses to make the aircraft go up or down.
Like a lever that sends an elevator up or lets it come down.
The pilot pulled the collective to lift the helicopter off the ground.
She eased the collective down for a smooth landing.
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Less common meaning

10
adjectiveobsolete
Drawing conclusions by reasoning from facts.
critical and collective reason
1642, [Thomas Browne], Religio MediciHere, collective means reasoning that draws conclusions from facts.
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Practice

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Origin

It comes from Latin, from a word meaning "to collect" or "gather together."