Meanings
- Of, pertaining to, or filled by appointment.
It will be kind of nice, a year before your time, to be standing in the way of any appointive plums that may happen to fall; […]
1898, Paul Laurence Dunbar, chapter XII, in The Uncalled: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 1642 more examples
The constitution adopted at Oakmulgee provides for […] the machinery of government in which the governor and legislature are elective by the people. The judges are appointive by the governor […]
1871, Protest of the Cherokee Nation against a Territorial Government, Washington, D.C., page 8‘It was an appointive job at one time but may not be now. […] Well, whatever the method is, appointive or elective, I have my dough on Gerald. He’s the logical choice.’
1961, Bernard Malamud, A New Life, Penguin, published 1968, page 109Antonyms: elective
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveOf, pertaining to, or filled by appointment.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivesubject to appointment
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
appointive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/appointive
“appointive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/appointive. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “appointive,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/appointive.
Source: appointive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.