ENGLISH
REFERENCE

accessive

adj.
C2 Proficiency ac·ces·sive Archaic
Definition

adj. describing something that is extra or more than what is needed. It is an old word that people do not use much today.

adj. excessive or superfluous in amount or degree. Primarily found in archaic or literary contexts; rarely used in modern general discourse.


SIMPLE

The old text used accessive words to fill the page.

CONTEXTUAL

The author was criticized for his accessive use of adjectives, which made the prose feel heavy and difficult to follow.

COMPLEX

In the margins of the manuscript, the scribe noted that the accessive details were likely added by a later hand to embellish the original narrative.

Origin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Word family

Last updated June 22, 2026