adjective
- formed by collecting; gathered into a whole
- of, as, or characteristic of a group; of or by all or many of the individuals in a group acting together: the collective effort of the students
- designating or of any enterprise in which people work together as a group, esp. under a system of collectivism: a collective farm
- Gram.
- designating a noun which is singular in form but denotes a collection of individuals (e.g., army, orchestra, crowd): it is treated as singular when the collection is thought of as a whole and as plural when the individual members are thought of as acting separately
- designating a prefix which denotes a collecting or a collection
Origin:
ME & OFr collectif < L collectivus