Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Serving to manifest or prove.
- adjective Involving or characterized by demonstration.
- adjective Given to or marked by the open expression of emotion.
- adjective Grammar Specifying or singling out the person or thing referred to.
- noun A demonstrative pronoun or adjective.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Exhibiting or indicating with clearness: as, a demonstrative figure in painting.
- In rhetoric, expressing or explaining with clearness, force, and beauty.
- Characterized by or given to the strong exhibition of any feeling or quality; energetically expressive: as, a demonstrative manner; a demonstrative person.
- Pertaining to or of the nature of proof; having the power of proving or demonstrating; indubitably conclusive: as, a demonstrative argument; demonstrative reasoning.
- noun A demonstrative pronoun.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gram.) A demonstrative pronoun.
- adjective Having the nature of demonstration; tending to demonstrate; making evident; exhibiting clearly or conclusively.
- adjective Expressing, or apt to express, much; displaying feeling or sentiment.
- adjective Consisting of eulogy or of invective.
- adjective (Gram.) a pronoun distinctly designating that to which it refers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective that serves to
demonstrate ,show orprove - adjective given to open
displays ofemotion - adjective grammar that
specifies the thing or person referred to - noun grammar A
demonstrative adjective . - noun grammar A
demonstrative pronoun .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective serving to demonstrate
- adjective given to or marked by the open expression of emotion
- noun a pronoun that points out an intended referent
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Certainty depends so wholly on this intuition, that, in the next degree of knowledge which I call demonstrative, this intuition is necessary in all the connexions of the intermediate ideas, without which we cannot attain knowledge and certainty.
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The two sisters, with the most virtuous emulation, vied with each other in demonstrative affection, till he was tolerably consoled.
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Normally when I use the word demonstrative on my blog I use it very loosely, it is a word I happen to love and on the level that I have written about myself up until now the context in which I have I used it is always simply to mean that I am not an affectionate person.
Corinna Carlson aka Gus Greeper Corinna Carlson 2010
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On my theory which we may call the demonstrative theory of quotation, the inscription inside does not refer to anything at all, nor is it part of any expression that does.
Quotation Cappelen, Herman 2009
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Using demonstratives and forming sentences A demonstrative is the part of speech that you use to indicate or specify a noun that you're referring to.
Arabic for Dummies Bouchentouf, Amine 2006
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I shall then bring forward a second kind of evidence which indicates a strong probability in favor of evolution, but does not prove it; and, lastly, I shall adduce a third kind of evidence which, being as complete as any evidence which we can hope to obtain upon such a subject, and being wholly and strikingly in favor of evolution, may fairly be called demonstrative evidence of its occurrence.
The Making of Arguments J. H. Gardiner
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A demonstrative is a word that points out an object definitely, as _this, that, these, those_.
Latin for Beginners Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge 1900
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"He is very impulsive and demonstrative, that is all."
Macaria 1872
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"He is very impulsive and demonstrative, that is all."
Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice Augusta Jane 1864
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I shall then bring forward a second kind of evidence which indicates a strong probability in favour of evolution, but does not prove it; and, lastly, I shall adduce a third kind of evidence which, being as complete as any evidence which we can hope to obtain upon such a subject, and being wholly and strikingly in favour of evolution, may fairly be called demonstrative evidence of its occurrence.
American Addresses, with a Lecture on the Study of Biology Thomas Henry Huxley 1860
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