relative

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Having pertinence or relevance; connected or related.
2. adj. Considered in comparison with something else: the relative quiet of the suburbs.
3. adj. Dependent on or interconnected with something else; not absolute. See Synonyms at dependent.
4. adj. Grammar Referring to or qualifying an antecedent, as the pronoun who in the man who was on TV or that in the dictionary that I use.
5. adj. Music Having the same key signature. Used of major and minor scales and keys: A minor is the relative minor of C major.
6. n. One related by kinship, common origin, or marriage.
7. n. Something having a relation or connection to something else.
8. n. Grammar A relative pronoun.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Having relation to or bearing on something; close in connection; pertinent; relevant; to the purpose.
2. Not absolute or existing by itself; considered as belonging to or respecting something else; depending on or incident to relation.
3. In grammar, referring to an antecedent; introducing a dependent clause that defines or describes or modifies something else in the sentence that is called the antecedent (because it usually, though by no means always, precedes the relative): thus, he who runs may read; he lay on the spot where he fell. Pronouns and pronominal adverbs are relative, such adverbs having also the value of conjunctions. A relative word used without an antecedent, as implying in itself its antecedent, is often called a compound relative: thus, who breaks pays; I saw where he fell. Relative words are always either demonstratives or interrogatives which have acquired secondarily the relative value and use.
4. Not intelligible except in connection with something else; signifying a relation, without stating what the correlate is: thus, father, better, west, etc., are relative terms.
5. In music, having a close melodic or harmonic relation. Thus, relative chords, in a narrow sense, the triads of a given key (tonality) having as roots the successive tones of its scale; relative keys, keys (tonalities) having several tones in common, thus affording opportunity tor easy modulation back and forth, or, more narrowly, keys whose tonic triads are relative chords of each other; relative major, relative minor, a major key and the minor key of its submediant regarded with respect to each other. Also related, parallel. See cut under chord, 4.
6. Same as specific gravity (which see. under gravity).
7. n. Something considered in its relation to something else; one of two things having a certain relation.
8. n. A person connected by blood or affinity; especially, one allied by blood; a kinsman or kinswoman; a relation.
9. n. In grammar, a relative word; a relative pronoun or adverb. See I., 3.
10. n. In logic, a relative term.
11. n. Synonyms Connection, etc. See relation.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Relevant; pertinent; related.
2. adj. Connected to or depending on something else; not absolute; comparative.
3. adj. grammar That relates to an antecedent.
4. adj. music Having the same key but differing in being major or minor.
5. adj. computing Expressed in relation to another item, rather than in complete form.
6. n. Someone in the same family; someone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Having relation or reference; referring; respecting; standing in connection; pertaining.
2. adj. Arising from relation; resulting from connection with, or reference to, something else; not absolute.
3. adj. (Gram.) Indicating or expressing relation; refering to an antecedent.
4. adj. (Mus.) Characterizing or pertaining to chords and keys, which, by reason of the identify of some of their tones, admit of a natural transition from one to the other.
5. n. A person connected by blood or affinity; strictly, one allied by blood; a relation; a kinsman or kinswoman.
6. n. (Gram.) A relative pronoun; a word which relates to, or represents, another word or phrase, called its antecedent.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an animal or plant that bears a relationship to another (as related by common descent or by membership in the same genus)
2. adj. properly related in size or degree or other measurable characteristics; usually followed by `to'
3. n. a person related by blood or marriage
4. adj. estimated by comparison; not absolute or complete