reflexive

UK: /rɪˈflɛksɪv/ US: /rɪˈflɛksɪv/ ,(ri flek′siv)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

re•flex•ive /rɪˈflɛksɪv/   adj. 

1. Grammar
   • (of a verb) taking an object that refers to the same person or thing as the subject, such as cut in I cut myself.
   • (of a pronoun) used as an object referring to the same person or thing as the subject, such as myself in I cut myself.
2. responding by way of a reflex:
   a reflexive act of self-preservation.

n. [countable]

3. Grammar a reflexive verb or pronoun.

re•flex•ive•ly, adv. See -flex-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

re•flex•ive  (ri flek′siv), adj. 

1. Grammar
   • (of a verb) taking a subject and object with identical referents, as shave in I shave myself.
   • (of a pronoun) used as an object to refer to the subject of a verb, as myself in I shave myself.
2. reflex; responsive.
3. able to reflect;
   reflective.
4. Mathematics
   • noting a relation in which each element is in relation to itself, as the relation "less than or equal to.'' Cf. antireflexive. 
   • (of a vector space) having the property that the dual space of the dual space of the given vector space equals the given vector space.

n. 

5. Grammar a reflexive verb or pronoun.

• Medieval Latin reflexīvus turned back, reflected. See reflex, -ive
• 1580–90

re•flex′ive•ly, adv. 
re•flex′ive•ness, re•flex•iv•i•ty  (rē′flek siv′i tē), n. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

reflexive / rɪˈflɛksɪv/ adjective

1. denoting a class of pronouns that refer back to the subject of a sentence or clause. Thus, in the sentence that man thinks a great deal of himself, the pronoun himself is reflexive
2. denoting a verb used transitively with the reflexive pronoun as its direct object, as the French se lever "to get up" (literally "to raise oneself") or English to dress oneself
3. of or relating to a reflex

noun

1. a reflexive pronoun or verb

reˈflexively adverb

reˈflexiveness, reflexivity / ˌriːflɛkˈsɪvɪtɪ/ noun