reduplicative

R1E1D2U1P3L1I1C3A1T1I1V4E1

adjective

Formed by redoubling; reduplicate, double

Scrabble 21

Meanings

adjectivereduplicative (not comparable)
  1. not comparableFormed by redoubling; reduplicate, double

    A hyphen (-) is generally used to indicate the boundary between the components of ordinary and reduplicative compounds in derivational morphology.

    2004, Jean Robert Opgenort, A Grammar of Wambule
    1 more example

    The loss of the reduplicative syllable in the perfect is sufficiently accounted for by the same occurrence in almost all the modern, and even some of the ancient branches of the Indo-Germanic family.

    1848, Chevalier Bunsen, Charles Meyer, Max Müller, Three Linguistic Dissertations
nounreduplicative (plural reduplicatives)

plural reduplicatives

  1. grammarA word obtained by the process of reduplication.

    Grammatically, Malay uses reduplication for plurals (burung = bird, burung-burung = birds) and thus repeated words are commonly heard in Malay speech; in contrast, in English reduplicatives are much less frequent and often involve phoneme modulation (ding-dong; wham-bam).

    2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 10

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

reduplicative. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reduplicative

MLA

“reduplicative.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reduplicative. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “reduplicative,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reduplicative.

Source: reduplicative on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.