Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Directed back on itself.
- adj. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verb having an identical subject and direct object, as dressed in the sentence She dressed herself.
- adj. Grammar Of, relating to, or being the pronoun used as the direct object of a reflexive verb, as herself in She dressed herself.
- adj. Of or relating to a reflex.
- adj. Elicited automatically; spontaneous: "a bid for . . . reflexive left-wing approval” ( Marshall Delaney).
- n. Grammar A reflexive verb or pronoun. See Usage Note at myself.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Reflective; bending or turning backward; having respect to something past.
- Capable of reflection; reflective.
- Casting or containing a reflection or censure.
- n. A reflexive verb or pronoun.
Wiktionary
- adj. grammar Having a subject and object that are the same.
- adj. set theory Of a relation R on a set S, such that xRx for all members x of S (that is, the relation holds between any element of the set and itself).
- n. A reflexive pronoun.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Bending or turned backward; reflective; having respect to something past.
- adj. obsolete Implying censure.
- adj. (Gram.) Having for its direct object a pronoun which refers to the agent or subject as its antecedent; -- said of certain verbs
WordNet 3.0
- n. a personal pronoun compounded with -self to show the agent's action affects the agent
- adj. without volition or conscious control
- adj. referring back to itself
Etymologies
- From Medieval Latin reflexivus, from Latin reflexus. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“My source, who prefers not to be named out of fear at what she described as a reflexive tendency toward "butthurt" against public criticism of Filipino cultural institutions, went on to say the following:”
“We know certainly know your perceptions, which appear to be based in reflexive emotion and bias, but not rational analysis.”
Debates: Fall Calendar Fills Up - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“I am weak in reflexive verbs and in object pronouns but since nobody else has responded yet, let me try ... súbetelo (note the accent) would mean to me "carry it up yourself" (the te in this case meaning yourself) while súbelo would mean lift it up, put it up.”
“I can remember general situations of hitting the ball in reflexive volleys, giving no conscious thought to each specific hit, yet consciously thinking of a strategy to win the volley, like a conscious thought streaming abstractly along while purely reflexive actions were taking place just to stay alive.”
“# 105, Well, Shaggy 6, I would say you come across as a moderate liberal, who actuallythinks through issues and does not engage in reflexive anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, which distinguishes you from many of the posters on Think Pogress.”
“Startled, horrified, bewildered, her mind sang out in reflexive misery.”
“The intention to produce a belief or other attitude by means (at least in part) of recognition of this very intention, has come to be called a reflexive communicative intention.”
“Breakthroughs in cognitive linguistics, especially regarding the embodiment of our thinking, deep and superficial conceptual frames, the forming of habits, and styles of thought known as reflexive (unconscious) and reflective (rational and available to consciousness) have redeemed the experiential pedagogy of American philosopher progressive education reformer John Dewey These progressive reforms had nothing whatsoever to do with "liberating children to follow their own instincts," as Brooks claims.”
“Reduction then may be defined as the reflexive transitive closure of one-step reduction.”
“Among the innate qualities of rigpa is self-arising deep awareness (rang-byung ye-shes), also known as reflexive deep awareness (rang-rig ye-shes).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘reflexive’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Lingering Irritation
Intensely disliked words from (a) grad program(s) in social sciences. At first they sound tricky and important. Take note! "Modeling is an important aspect in education. Eschew obfuscation."
...zeitgeist, praxis, cathexis, dissertation, reflexive, reflective, empathetic, empathic, paucity, diversity, intervention, efficacy and 23 more...
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cuzican's Words
lexicon, tirade, innocuous, apathy, narcissist, subtle, agnostic, plethora, malleable, catalyst, pithy, irate and 116 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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my words
interminable, effete, convocation, philistines, malaise, foibles, deputation, anathematized, morass, stalwart, proselytize, abet and 405 more...
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nuwerdna's Words
smegma, defenestration, nubile, zeitgeist, stochastic, ergodic, stability, maudlin, recursion, aversion, agent, set and 239 more...
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English grammar
terms relevant to English grammar
phrase, clause, sentence, complement, modifier, adjunct, specifier, constituent, syntax, bar level, supplement, coordination and 285 more...
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inacrateofnectarines
sounds as good as it means
dreamscape, wasteland, camber, eldritch, fiasco, shroud, verisimilitude, aubergine, attenuate, lavalier, calibrate, instantiate and 84 more...
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Vocal Performance
Grammatical voices.
adjutative, applicative, causative, circumstantial, mediopassive, antipassive, active, passive, reciprocal, reflexive, impersonal passive
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Verborum
Types of verbs.
accusative, impersonal, control, captative, transitive, inchoative, compound, predicative, unacusative, unergative, monotransitive, light and 16 more...
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Academese
Jargon and vocabulary used in Academia, especially in cultural studies
intertextuality, hermeneutics, hegemony, problematize, engender, signify, multivocality, paradigm, deconstruction, ethnograpy, praxis, decontextualize and 22 more...
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tomduck's geeky words
obfuscate, recursive, idempotent, intractable, integer, spline, tesselate, node, tree, axis, delta, interleave and 68 more...
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concepts of self
unique, self-parodying, introspection, self-knowledge, self-consciousness, ontology, selfness, me, i, reflexive, solipsism, delusions of gran... and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for reflexive.

vermontster Used frequently in counselor training - often confused with reflective for some reason. Jun 28, 2008
juv3nal reflexive Feb 19, 2007