1. in a way that expresses or indicates a part of a whole
Usage: grammar; linguistics

Examples

• The word ‘some’ can be used partitively in the phrase ‘some of the cake.’
• In French, the partitive article ‘du’ functions partitively to indicate an unspecified quantity.
• The genitive case is used partitively in many languages to express partial quantities.
• She analyzed how the determiner worked partitively in the sentence structure.
• The linguist explained how certain pronouns function partitively in different contexts.