Meaning & use
integrative
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Combining different methods, subjects, or treatments into one single approach.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: an integrative course, integrative therapy. It is not normally used after a linking verb like 'be'.
Patterns
- integrative approach
- integrative medicine
- integrative therapy
- integrative learning
The school offers an integrative program that mixes science, art, and history.
Many patients now ask for integrative care that combines standard drugs with other treatments.
Her integrative style of teaching brings together reading, writing, and discussion in every lesson.
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Relating to the process of joining parts so that they work together as a whole.
Grammar: Used before a noun to describe a process or system: integrative mechanisms, an integrative role.
Patterns
- integrative process
- integrative role
- integrative mechanism
The team plays an integrative role, linking the design group with the engineers.
Researchers studied the integrative processes that hold large organizations together.
Common combinations
- integrative medicine
- Integrative medicine draws on both conventional drugs and proven complementary therapies.
- integrative approach
- An integrative approach to language teaching uses listening, speaking, and grammar together.
- integrative therapy
- She trained in integrative therapy so she could treat both mind and body.
- integrative learning
- Integrative learning helps students connect ideas across different subjects.
- integrative care
- The clinic provides integrative care for patients with long-term pain.
Synonyms and how they differ
- holistic
- Holistic looks at a whole person or system, including its context, while integrative stresses actively joining separate parts together.
- combined
- Combined simply means put together; integrative suggests the parts are blended so they work as one.
- unified
- Unified describes the finished state of being one whole, whereas integrative describes the process or method of bringing parts together.
Opposites
Word family
- integrate verb
- to combine two or more things so they become one
- integration noun
- the act or process of joining things into a whole
- integrated adjective
- made up of parts that work together well
- disintegrate verb
- to break apart into pieces
Commonly confused: integrative or integral? integrative or integrated?
integrative vs integral
Integral means 'necessary and essential', as in 'an integral part of the plan'. Integrative means 'combining different things into one', so the two are not interchangeable.
integrative vs integrated
Integrated describes something already joined into a working whole, while integrative describes the method or approach that does the joining.
Practice
The hospital opened a new center that uses ______ medicine, mixing standard treatment with yoga and diet advice.
Choose one answer.
'Integrative medicine' is the fixed term for combining conventional and complementary treatments. 'Integral' means essential, 'integrated' describes something already combined, and 'integrate' is a verb, so none fits before the noun 'medicine' here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “integrative”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.