Definition of "dispositive" [dis•pos•i•tive]

• Relating to or having an effect on disposition or settlement, especially of a legal case or will. (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.

• "COL Brownbeck's opinion doesn't make clear how Congress intended the Commission process to differ from standard courts-martial, other than the self-evident post-2006 CSRT "dispositive" exception."
• "If I understand it correctly, the judge's ruling appears to be premised on the notion that the word "dispositive" in section 948dc means "necessary," and that the military commission itself is not the sort of "competent tribunal" described in that section."
• "In that case, we held that a public use had occurred, finding "dispositive" the fact that the patentee"