Meaning & use
duplicative
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Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Repeating something that has already been done or provided, so that the effort or cost is wasted.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a duplicative process, or the work is duplicative.
Patterns
- duplicative of something
- a duplicative effort
The two committees did duplicative work for six months.
Regulators said the new form was duplicative of an existing one.
Removing duplicative services saved the city millions.
Word forms
| comparative | more duplicative |
|---|---|
| superlative | most duplicative |
Common combinations
- duplicative effort
- Sharing data would avoid duplicative effort between agencies.
- duplicative of
- The proposal is duplicative of last year's study.
- duplicative services
- The merger eliminated duplicative services.
- duplicative costs
- Separate offices created duplicative costs.
- unnecessarily duplicative
- The training program was unnecessarily duplicative.
Synonyms and how they differ
- redundant
- Redundant means more than is needed and can describe people or words, while duplicative stresses that something copies another thing.
- overlapping
- Overlapping suggests partial sharing of function, whereas duplicative suggests nearly complete repetition.
- repetitive
- Repetitive describes actions that happen again and again, not necessarily because another thing does the same job.
- superfluous
- Superfluous means unnecessary for any reason, while duplicative says it is unnecessary because it repeats something.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: duplicative or duplicitous?
duplicative vs duplicitous
Duplicitous means deceitful and relates to duplicity. It is not a synonym of duplicative, which only describes needless repetition.
Practice
A manager says two teams are doing the same job. Which word best describes the situation?
Choose one answer.
Duplicative describes work that unnecessarily repeats other work. Duplicitous means deceitful, which does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “duplicative”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.