Synonyms for operative
ˈɒp ər ə tɪv, ˈɒp rə tɪv, ˈɒp əˌreɪ tɪvop·er·a·tive

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. operative

   Artist, artificer and artisan are all from the root of art, but artist holds to the esthetic sense, while artificer and artisan follow the mechanical or industrial sense of the word (see ART under SCIENCE). Artist thus comes only into accidental association with the other words of this group, not being a synonym of any one of them and having practically no synonym of its own. The work of the artist is creative; that of the artisan mechanical. The man who paints a beautiful picture is an artist; the man who makes pin-heads all day is an artisan. The artificer is between the two, putting more thought, intelligence, and taste into his work than the artisan, but less of the idealizing, creative power than the artist. The sculptor, shaping his model in clay, is artificer, as well as artist; patient artisans, working simply by rule and scale, chisel and polish the stone. The man who constructs anything by mere routine and rule is a mechanic. The man whose work involves thought, skill, and constructive power is an artificer. The hod-carrier is a laborer; the bricklayer is a mechanic; the master mason is an artificer. Those who operate machinery nearly self-acting are operatives.

   Synonyms:
   artificer, artisan, artist, mechanic, workman

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. operative

   Synonyms:
   active, efficacious, serviceable, binding

   Antonyms:
   inefficacious, inoperative

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. secret agent, intelligence officer, intelligence agent, operativenoun

   a person secretly employed in espionage for a government

   Synonyms:
   intelligence officer, private detective, sherlock, private eye, private investigator, intelligence agent, shamus, secret agent

   Antonyms:
   down, insignificant, unimportant, defunct, malfunctioning, dead, nonfunctional, inoperative

2. private detective, PI, private eye, private investigator, operative, shamus, sherlockadjective

   someone who can be employed as a detective to collect information

   Synonyms:
   private investigator, private detective, intelligence officer, sherlock, private eye, intelligence agent, shamus, protease inhibitor, secret agent, principal investigator

   Antonyms:
   malfunctioning, defunct, nonfunctional, inoperative, unimportant, down, insignificant, dead

3. operativeadjective

   being in force or having or exerting force

   "operative regulations"; "the major tendencies operative in the American political system"

   Synonyms:
   functional, running(a), working(a), surgical

   Antonyms:
   dead, unimportant, malfunctioning, insignificant, nonfunctional, defunct, inoperative, down

4. surgical, operativeadjective

   relating to or requiring or amenable to treatment by surgery especially as opposed to medicine

   "a surgical appendix"; "a surgical procedure"; "operative dentistry"

   Synonyms:
   functional, running(a), working(a), surgical

   Antonyms:
   inoperative, dead, malfunctioning, unimportant, defunct, nonfunctional, down, insignificant

5. operativeadjective

   effective; producing a desired effect

   "the operative word"

   Synonyms:
   functional, running(a), working(a), surgical

   Antonyms:
   nonfunctional, down, insignificant, defunct, malfunctioning, dead, unimportant, inoperative

6. running(a), operative, functional, working(a)adjective

   (of e.g. a machine) performing or capable of performing

   "in running (or working) order"; "a functional set of brakes"

   Antonyms:
   unimportant, defunct, down, insignificant, dead, malfunctioning, nonfunctional, inoperative

Matched Categories

1. • Agent

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. operativeadjective

   Synonyms:
   acting, active, in action, in operation

2. operativeadjective

   Synonyms:
   effective, efficient, effectual, efficacious, serviceable

3. operativenoun

   Synonyms:
   laborer, artisan, laboring man, common workman

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "operative":

   operational, dispositif, device, operating

How to pronounce operative?

How to say operative in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use operative in a sentence?

1. London Police spokesman:

   Officers arrived to help with their ejection. Once in the presence of the police, the protesters were co-operative and left the premises, no arrests were made.

2. George W. Bush:

   Our intelligence community believes (he) was training in poisons at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, and had been sent to the United States before September the 11th to serve as a sleeper agent ready for follow-on attacks, among the potential targets our intelligence community believes this al Qaeda operative discussed … were water reservoirs, the New York Stock Exchange and United States military academies such as this one.

3. Joan Donovan:

   [ Trump ] is a newsworthy and historical figure that has not been convicted of any crime, and if Meta is dedicated to the same kind of free speech values that Twitter is, then they would likely let Donald Trump back on, the big question is about network incitement … there’s no other technology in which a politician or political operative could incite such fervor as openly as they were able to do for January 6, and the technology has n’t changed in any significant way that would prevent something like this from happening again.

4. President Nicolas Maduro:

   In the case of Venezuela we will be returning our ambassador immediately to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.

5. James Carville:

   The Democratic constituency is just like a herd of cows. All you have to do is lay out enough silage and they come running. That’s why I became an operative working with Democrats. With Democrats all you have to do is make a lot of noise, lay out the hay, and be ready to use the ole cattle prod in case a few want to bolt the herd.