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Definition of "constitutive" [con•sti•tu•tive]

  • Making a thing what it is; essential. (adjective)
  • Having power to institute, establish, or enact. (adjective)
  • Of or relating to the synthesis of a protein or an enzyme at a constant rate regardless of physiological demand or the concentration of a substrate. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "constitutive" in a sentence
  • "Not unlike any other term constitutive of our political vocabulary,"
  • ""The new design of the referendum, which we call constitutive, will be acted on by Kenyans to adopt the draft constitution."
  • "Our love-icons and constellations of love-imagery aren't perennials, they're rather what archaeologist Colin Renfrew calls constitutive symbols: "in defining symbols, we are not just playing with words, but recognising features of the material world with which human individuals come to engage"; "that engagement . . . is socially mediated, and it comes about when other features of the society make that feasible.""