creative

USkree-AY-tiv/kɹiˈeɪtɪv/

6 meanings of creative

1
imaginativeadjective
Having or showing the ability to make new things or think of original ideas; imaginative.
The teacher praised her creative approach to the project.
Their new ad campaign was bold and genuinely creative.
UsageOften creative with something: get creative with leftovers, be creative with the ingredients.
Note
The word praises makers and what they make alike: a creative child, a creative solution, a creative campaign. Of a person it names a talent for producing new things; of a piece of work it praises the result as fresh and original. The two blur constantly, since a creative solution implies a creative mind behind it. As a noun it names a person in advertising or the material they make.
2
advertising workernouncountable
A person whose work is making original things such as art, writing, or design, especially in advertising or marketing.
As a creative, she spent her days dreaming up ad concepts.
The agency hired two new creatives for the campaign.
UsageOften in job talk: work as a creative; several are creatives.
Note
Advertising's name for the people who make its work: the copywriters, art directors and designers who conceive and produce campaign content, as opposed to account-management or media-planning staff. Keep it apart from the material they produce, which is usually spoken of as a mass.
3
ad artworknouncountable or uncountable
Images, video, and other artistic content used in advertisements.
The agency delivered the creative two days before launch.
We still need to finalize the creative for the spring ads.
UsageUsually the creative for a campaign or all the creative; the person who makes it is a creative.
Similarartwork
Note
The work rather than the worker. In agency usage, the creative is the body of images, drawings or video behind a campaign, in draft or final form.

Less common meanings

4
deceptiveadjective
Made or done in a way intended to deceive or mislead, often while appearing legitimate.
Auditors uncovered the firm's creative bookkeeping.
Auditors later found that the firm's creative bookkeeping had hidden millions in losses.
UsageMostly before a noun of money or records: creative accounting, creative bookkeeping.
Similarmisleading, deceptive, fraudulent
Oppositehonest
Note
Irony does the work here. A word of praise is turned on methods that are inventive in the wrong way. Unlike the 'original' meaning, it does not compliment the thing it describes. It reads as a wry accusation, most often in creative accounting or creative bookkeeping, though a person can also be creative with the truth.
5
adjective
Used ironically or euphemistically of art or design: badly made, cluttered or overdone.
6
adjective
In mathematical logic, describing a particular kind of set of natural numbers with special structural properties.

Practice

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Origin

This word was borrowed from Late Latin creativus, from Latin creō. It is equivalent to "create" plus the suffix "-ive."

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Creative was borrowed from Late Latin creativus. es.wiktionary.org
Creativus derives from Latin creō. en.wiktionary.org
Creative is equivalent to create plus the suffix -ive. es.wiktionary.org