# possessive

/pəˈzɛsɪv/ (US) · /pəzˈɛsɪv/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/possessive
Updated: 2026-08-08

## Senses

### 1. controlling in a relationship

adjective · CEFR B2

demanding someone's total attention and not wanting them to be independent or spend time with others.

For teachers: manifesting a desire to exert excessive control or ownership over another person, typically within a romantic or familial relationship.

- He became very possessive and didn't like it when his girlfriend went out with her own friends.
- The protagonist's possessive nature eventually alienated his partner, as his constant need for reassurance manifested as restrictive and jealous behaviour.

Teaching tip: This sense carries a negative social connotation; it describes a personality flaw rather than a positive trait.

### 2. showing ownership

adjective · CEFR B2

relating to owning something or showing who something belongs to.

For teachers: pertaining to the legal or physical possession of property or assets.

- The cat has a very possessive attitude toward its favourite blanket.
- The company maintains a possessive interest in the patent, refusing to license the technology to any of its primary competitors.

### 3. grammar

adjective · CEFR B1 · Technical

describing a word or form that shows who owns something, like 'mine' or 'the dog's'.

For teachers: denoting a grammatical case or form used to indicate a relationship of possession, origin, or association.

- In the phrase 'my car', the word 'my' is a possessive adjective.
- Learners often struggle with the placement of the apostrophe when forming the possessive plural of irregular nouns.

Usage: In linguistics, this is often used interchangeably with 'genitive' in English instruction.

Teaching tip: While 'genitive' is the technical linguistic term, 'possessive' is the standard term used in most EFL classrooms.

### 4. the possessive form

noun · CEFR B2 · Technical

a word or a form of a word that shows ownership.

For teachers: a noun or pronoun in the possessive case.

- You need to add an apostrophe and an 's' to make the possessive of most singular nouns.
- The student mistakenly used a possessive where a simple plural was required, leading to confusion in the sentence's meaning.

Usage: Usually functions as a countable noun when referring to specific words.

## Examples

- He is very possessive of his new car.
- The toddler became quite possessive of the shared toys when the other children arrived at the playgroup.
- Her possessive nature eventually strained the relationship, as she struggled to allow her partner any degree of social independence or private time.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.