Meaning & use
relative
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A person who belongs to the same family as you, through birth or marriage.
Grammar: Often modified by close or distant: a close relative.
Patterns
- a relative of someone
- a close relative
Several relatives came to stay for the holidays.
She is a distant relative of the author.
The nurse asked whether any close relative could be contacted.
adjectivebefore a noun
Judged by comparing with something else, not as a fixed or absolute amount.
Grammar: Often followed by to: relative to last year.
Patterns
- relative to something
Prices are high relative to local wages.
The relative merits of the two plans were debated.
Her relative calm surprised everyone.
nouncountablebiology
A plant, animal or word that is related to another by origin.
Grammar: Used in biology and language: a wild relative of corn.
Patterns
- a relative of something
The wolf is a close relative of the domestic dog.
Wild relatives of wheat can help breeders improve the crop.
Word forms
| plural | relatives |
|---|
Common combinations
- close relative
- A close relative can sign the form for him.
- distant relative
- I met a distant relative at the wedding.
- relative to
- Rents are high relative to salaries.
- relative importance
- We discussed the relative importance of each factor.
- relative humidity
- The relative humidity was above ninety percent.
- relative newcomer
- He is a relative newcomer to the team.
Synonyms and how they differ
- relation
- Relation means the same as relative for family members and is more common in British English, but it also has other meanings.
- kin
- Kin is a formal or old-fashioned word for family, usually used as a group rather than for one person.
- comparative
- Comparative as an adjective also involves comparison, but it often means measured against something specific, as in a comparative study.
- proportional
- Proportional means changing in step with something else, whereas relative only means compared with something.
Opposites
Word family
- relatively adverb
- to a fair degree compared with something else
- relativity noun
- the state of depending on comparison, or a physics theory
- relate verb
- to connect or tell
- relativism noun
- the view that truth depends on viewpoint
Commonly confused: relative or relation?
relative vs relation
Relation can mean a family member like relative, but it also means a connection between things, as in the relation between price and demand.
Practice
The flat is cheap ___ other places in the city, though it is still not low in absolute terms.
Choose one answer.
Relative to means in comparison with. The other options do not give a comparison and are not grammatical here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “relative”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.