additive

[ad-i-tiv] /ˈæd ɪ tɪv/

noun

something that is added, as one substance to another, to alter or improve the general quality or to counteract undesirable properties:

an additive that thins paint.

Nutrition.

Also called food additive. a substance added directly to food during processing, as for preservation, coloring, or stabilization.
something that becomes part of food or affects it as a result of packaging or processing, as debris or radiation.

adjective

characterized or produced by addition; cumulative:

an additive process.

Mathematics. (of a function) having the property that the function of the union or sum of two quantities is equal to the sum of the functional values of each quantity; linear.

Origin

1690-1700; < Late Latin additīvus. See additament, -ive

Related forms

additively, adverb

interadditive, adjective

subadditive, adjective

subadditively, adverb

Examples from the web for additive

Peat, another additive in many fertilizers, could actually contribute to global warming.
They can also serve as a beneficial additive to gardens and compost piles.
It is also used as an additive in unleaded gasoline.
So, an additive was put it in to try to disrupt that behavior.
Some studies show improved behavior among children placed on additive-free diets.
Machines act multiplicatively on labor while labor is only additive.
It is suspect as an additive source of lung-irritating particulates and cloud-forming haze.
Those who ate the additive that was harder to break down also reported that they felt fuller after the meal, the study says.
For stature, the additive variance is spread across too many loci for this model to be plausible.
These plots are measuring narrow sense heritability, which is the additive genetic variance over the phenotypic variance.

British Dictionary definitions for additive

additive

/ˈædɪtɪv/

adjective

characterized or produced by addition; cumulative

noun

any substance added to something to improve it, prevent deterioration, etc

short for food additive

Word Origin

C17: from Late Latin additīvus, from addere to add

Word Origin and History for additive

adj.

1690s, "tending to be added," from Latin additivus "added, annexed," from past participle stem of addere (see addition).

"something that is added" to a chemical solution or food product, 1945, from additive (adj.).

additive in Medicine

additive ad·di·tive (ād'ĭ-tĭv)
n.
A substance added in small amounts to something else to improve, strengthen, or otherwise alter it.

ad'di·tive adj.

additive in Science

additive

  (ād'ĭ-tĭv)
Noun  A substance added in small amounts to something else to improve, strengthen, or otherwise alter it. Additives are used for a variety of reasons. They are added to food, for example, to enhance taste or color or to prevent spoilage. They are added to gasoline to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, and to plastics to enhance molding capability.

Adjective

Relating to the production of color by the mixing of light rays of varying wavelengths. ◇ The additive primaries red, green, and blue are those colors whose wavelengths can be mixed in different proportions to produce all other spectral colors. Compare subtractive. See Note at color.
Mathematics Marked by, produced by, or involving addition.

additive in Technology

mathematics
A function f : X -> Y is additive if
for all Z f z : z in Z
(f "preserves lubs"). All additive functions defined over cpos are continuous.
("LaTeX as \subseteq, "lub" as \sqcup ).
(1995-02-03)