Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A written message; a letter. See Synonyms at letter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Sent or proceeding, as from some authoritative or official source.
- Thrown or hurled; missile.
- n. That which is sent; specifically, a written message; a letter; especially, in Scots law, a letter interchanged between parties, in which the one party offers to enter into a contract on certain conditions, and the other party accepts the offer, completing the contract.
- n. A person sent; a messenger.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent.
- adj. Missile.
- n. That which is sent; a writing containing a message.
- n. obsolete One who is sent; a messenger.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a written message addressed to a person or organization
Etymologies
- 15th Century; from Medieval Latin missivus, from mittere ("to send"). (Wiktionary)
- From Middle English (letter) missive, (letter) sent (by superior authority), from Medieval Latin (litterae) missīvae, feminine pl. of missīvus, sent, from Latin missus, past participle of mittere, to send. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We can do the Moon with that amount of money and our missive is at least one way to do that.”
“Therefore the purpose of this missive is to look at where many in society see our future going, and to show where space either supports the positive aspects or negates the negative ones.”
“But even the most finely crafted missive is only as effective as its subject lines -- the teaser (50 characters or less) that convinces a recipient to open the message in the first place.”
“Once again, another dismissive missive from the Clinton campaign.”
Clinton advisor blames strategy disagreements, money for loss
“But voters also need to know the context in which the donation was given, and today's missive from the Clinton campaign doesn't even really try.”
“The folks at Holy Moly received a missive from the law offices of Elliot J. Abelson.”
“I have just received a missive from the delightful Simmone Howell telling me that Scatterheart has been sighted in the wild!”
“I just got a missive from the Harpo folks letting me know about tomorrow's Oprah:”
“Now, his sappily sweet missive is amusing conservators at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia.”
“The anxious missive is among documents included in the 1.2 million military personnel files the National Archives will open to the public Saturday for the first time.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘missive’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
-
Naresh_Gre2
convoke, cosset, coterie, declaim, distaff, doff, dovetail, droll, dyspeptic, egress, ersatz, euphemism and 108 more...
-
GRE
droll, dyspeptic, ebullient, ardor, edify, efficacy, malinger, mannered, martinet, maudlin, mendacious, mendicant and 102 more...
-
To Whom It May Concern
Lessons from the art of letter writing.
To Whom It May Co..., Dear Sir or Madam, complimentary close, sincerely, valediction, salutation, yours truly, yours sincerely, sincerely yours, very truly yours, I am, Sir, your m..., yours faithfully and 24 more...
-
Words that make me cringe
I do not like hearing these words.
Hangnail, Pus, Tumor, Come, Interesting, Mills, Fiber, Lonesome, Slab, Crawl, Take, Controlled and 3 more...
-
broken
unable, to, complete, request, sorry, something, has, gone, terribly, wrong, When, the and 35 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
A Refined Lexicon
ambivalence, ambivalent, equivocal, equivocation, equivocate, prevaricate, prevarication, quietude, quiescent, quiescence, vanquish, pluviosity and 137 more...
-
GRE
pejorative, austere, unconscionable, lissome, edify, winsome, axiom, malinger, abjure, deleterious, contumacious, peregrinate and 152 more...
-
cxfx's list
callipygous, scaphism, ubermorgen, handschuhschneeba..., farctate, autohagiography, autolatry, spindrift, feculent, verisimilitude, brobdingnagian, ineluctable and 205 more...
-
nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
-
collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
-
Words to Learn
colloquium, resilient, ruminate, missive, sylvan, indefatigable, preclude, prowess, quiescent, caustic, verdant, specter and 119 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for missive.
sweetzingiber a written note or letter Jul 31, 2009