of, relating to, or causing association or union being independent of the grouping of numbers, symbols, or terms within a given set, as in conjunction or in an expression such as (2 × 3) × 4 = 2 × (3 × 4) referring to this property: the associative laws of arithmetic
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
as•so•ci•a•tive
(ə sō′shē ā′tiv, -sē-, -shə tiv),USA pronunciation adj.
as•so•ci•a•tive•ly
(ə sō′shē ā′tiv lē, -ə tiv-, -sē-),USA pronunciation adv.
as•so•ci•a•tiv•i•ty
(ə sō′shē ə tiv′i tē, -sē-, -shə tiv′-),USA pronunciation as•so′ci•a′tive•ness, n.
- pertaining to or resulting from association.
- tending to associate or unite.
- Mathematics, Philosophy
- (of an operation on a set of elements) giving an equivalent expression when elements are grouped without change of order, as (a + b) + c = a + (b + c).
- having reference to this property:associative law of multiplication.
- 1805–15; associate + -ive
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'associative' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
burr
- concomitant
- group
- loaded
- multiplication
- ring
- semigroup
- symbolist
- vector space
- word association
- word association test