# collective

Pronunciation: US say "kuh-LEK-tiv" /kəˈlɛktɪv/; UK

## Adjective

1. Formed by gathering or collecting separate things into a single mass, sum, or body.
   - Simple: Made by joining or adding many separate things into one whole.
   - _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._
3. Arising from more than one origin, or shared among multiple holders of authority.
   - Simple: Coming from or shared among more than one person or source.
   - _Under collective leadership, no single official could override the others._
   - _The treaty established collective authority over the disputed waters._
4. Tending to gather things together, or forming them into a collection.
   - Simple: Likely to gather things together, or forming a collection of them.
   - _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._
5. Naming a group or aggregate of individuals through a single grammatical form.
   - Simple: Describing a single word that names a whole group of things at once.
   - _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._

## Noun

2. A group of people united by and working toward a particular cause or interest.
   - Simple: A group of people who work together for a shared 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._
6. A noun or name that refers to a group of individuals as a single unit.
   - Simple: A word that names a whole group of things as one thing.
   - _Writers often pair a collective with a singular verb for a formal effect._
   - _The sentence sounded odd because the collective took a plural verb._
7. One of several farms owned and managed by the community through the state.
   - Simple: A farm owned and run by a community under the control of 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._
8. A farm that is owned jointly by a group of people.
   - Simple: A farm that a group of people own together.
   - _Several families bought the orchard and ran it as a collective._
   - _Profits from the collective were split evenly among the owners._
9. The lever a helicopter pilot uses to control the aircraft's ascent or descent.
   - Simple: A lever a helicopter pilot uses to make the aircraft go up or down.
   - _Raising the collective increased lift and the helicopter began to climb._
   - _A sudden pull on the collective sent the aircraft upward sharply._

## Adjective

10. Drawing conclusions by deduction or inference; reasoning from premises to consequences. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Drawing conclusions by reasoning from facts.

## Origin

It comes from Middle French collectif, from Latin collēctīvus, based on colligō "I collect": a blend of com- "together" and legō "I gather."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/collective (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).