Dictionary Definition
imperative adj
1 requiring attention or action; "as nuclear
weapons proliferate, preventing war becomes imperative"; "requests
that grew more and more imperative" [ant: beseeching]
2 relating to verbs in the imperative mood
Noun
1 a mood that expresses an intention to influence
the listener's behavior [syn: imperative
mood, jussive
mood]
2 some duty that is essential and urgent
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- a US /ɪmˈpɛɹ.ə.tɪv/
Noun
- The grammatical
mood expressing an order (see jussive). In English, the
imperative form of a verb is the same form as that of its second
person ("you") present tense.
- The verbs in sentences like "Do it!" and "Say what you like!" are in the imperative.
- An essential action, a must: something which is imperative.
- Visiting Berlin is an imperative.
Synonyms
Translations
verbal mood
- Dutch: gebiedende wijs
- Faroese: boðsháttur
- Finnish: imperatiivi
- French: impératif
- German: Imperativ , Befehlsform
- Hungarian: felszólító mód, imperativusz
- Icelandic: boðháttur
- Italian: imperativo
- Japanese: (, meireihō)
- Latin: imperativus
- Polish: imperatyw
- Russian: повелительное наклонение (povelítel'noje naklonénie)
- Slovene: velelnik
- Spanish: imperativo
- Swedish: imperativ
essential action
- Dutch: must
- French: impératif
- German: Muss
- Icelandic: nauðsyn
- Italian: imperativo , necessario
- Latin: necessitas , opus
Adjective
Translations
essential
- Dutch: noodzakelijk
- Finnish: välttämätön
- German: essenziell, essentiell, notwendig unverzichtbar, wesentlich
- Icelandic: mikilvægur , mikilvæg , mikilvægt
- Italian: imperativo , necessario , necessaria,
- Latin: necessus , necessum
computing
Italian
Adjective
imperative pExtensive Definition
Imperative can mean:
- Imperative, one of the classifications for a type of sentence
- Imperative programming, in computer science, a programming paradigm
- Imperative mood, a grammatical mood expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions
- Moral imperative, a philosophical concept relating to obligation.
imperative in German: Imperativ
imperative in French: Impératif
imperative in Russian: Императив
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, acid, acute, allegiance, arbitrary, aristocratic, arrogant, ascendant, assigned task,
authoritarian,
authoritative,
authorized, autocratic, basic, behest, bidding, binding, biting, bossy, bounden duty, burden, burning, business, call of duty,
canon, case of need,
charge, choiceless, claimed, clamant, clamorous, clothed with
authority, coactive,
code, command, commanding, commandment, commitment, compelling, competent, compulsatory, compulsive, compulsory, conclusive, conditional, consequential, considerable, constraining, controlling, convention, corrosive, critical, crucial, crying, cutting, de rigueur, decisive, decretal, decretive, decretory, dedication, deference, demanded, despotic, devoir, devotion, dictate, dictated, dictating, dictation, dictatorial, dictum, dire necessity, direct
order, directive,
dogmatic, dominant, domineering, driving, duly constituted,
duties and responsibilities, duty, effective, eminent, empowered, entailed, essential, ethics, ex officio, exigence, exigency, exigent, fealty, feudal, final, forceful, forcible, form, formula, fundamental, general
principle, golden rule, governing, great, grinding, guideline, guiding principle,
gutsy, hard-and-fast,
harsh, hegemonic, hegemonistic, hest, high-handed, high-pressure,
high-priority, homage,
immediacy, imperativeness, imperial, imperious, important, importunate, imposed, impressive, incisive, indicative, indispensable, inevitable, influential, insistent, instant, instructive, involuntary, irresistible, irrevocable, jussive, law, leading, line of duty, lordly, loyalty, magisterial, magistral, mandated, mandating, mandatory, masterful, matter of
necessity, maxim, mighty, mission, mitzvah, mode, momentous, monocratic, mood, moral, mordant, must, necessary, necessitous, nervous, norm, obligating, obligation, obligative, obligatory, official, onus, oppressive, optative, order, ordering, ordinance, ought, overbearing, overruling, penetrating, peremptory, permissive, piercing, pivotal, place, pleasure, poignant, potent, potential, powerful, preceptive, predicament, preeminent, prerequisite, prescript, prescriptive, pressing, pressingness, pressure, prestigious, principium, principle, prominent, puissant, punchy, ranking, regulation, repressive, required, requisite, respect, restraining, rubric, rule, ruling, say-so, self-imposed
duty, senior, sensational, settled
principle, severe,
sinewed, sinewy, slashing, special order,
standard, stern, strict, striking, strong, subjunctive, substantial, superior, suppressive, supreme, telling, tenet, totalitarian, trenchant, tyrannical, tyrannous, ultimate, urgency, urgent, urgent need, vigorous, vital, weighty, will, without appeal, without
choice, word, word of
command, working principle, working rule