Meaning & use

collective

adjective·Academic

Done, shared, or experienced by every member of a group together, rather than separately.

See it in a sentence

The team's collective effort finished the project two weeks ahead of schedule.

There was a collective sigh of relief when the exam results were finally posted.

A note on using this word

Collective emphasizes something belonging to or done by a whole group at once, as opposed to 'individual,' which highlights a single member.

Words with a similar meaning

communaljointshared

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

Another way to use it

2. noun

A cooperative enterprise or organization owned and run jointly by its members.

The farmers formed a collective to sell their produce directly to city markets.

Make it your own

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