Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not native to and not fully established in a new habitat or environment; locally or temporarily naturalized.
- noun An adventive organism.
from The Century Dictionary.
- . Accidental; adventitious.
- Specifically In botany and zoology, only transient and locally spontaneous, not thoroughly naturalized: applied to introduced plants and animals.
- noun One who or that which comes from without; an immigrant.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Accidental.
- adjective (Bot.) Adventitious.
- noun rare A thing or person coming from without; an immigrant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
adventitious - adjective biology Of a plant that is not
native , but wasintroduced by humans to a place and has since becomenaturalized .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective not native and not fully established; locally or temporarily naturalized
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Unto the first of these, the considerations of the original of the soul, whether it be native or adventive, and how far it is exempted from laws of matter, and of the immortality thereof, and many other points, do appertain: which have been not more laboriously inquired than variously reported; so as the travail therein taken seemeth to have been rather in a maze than in
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It appeareth likewise that I have assigned to summary philosophy the common principles and axioms which are promiscuous and indifferent to several sciences; I have assigned unto it likewise the inquiry touching the operation or the relative and adventive characters of essences, as quantity, similitude, diversity, possibility, and the rest, with this distinction and provision; that they be handled as they have efficacy in nature, and not logically.
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It is really from the union of Hellenism, in its breadth, its sanity of purpose, its calm possession of beauty, with the adventive, the intensified individualism, the passionate colour of the romantic spirit, that springs the art of the nineteenth century in England, as from the marriage of Faust and Helen of Troy sprang the beautiful boy Euphorion.
Miscellanies Oscar Wilde 1877
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It appeareth likewise that I have assigned to summary philosophy the common principles and axioms which are promiscuous and indifferent to several sciences; I have assigned unto it likewise the inquiry touching the operation or the relative and adventive characters of essences, as quantity, similitude, diversity, possibility, and the rest, with this distinction and provision; that they be handled as they have efficacy in nature, and not logically.
The Advancement of Learning Francis Bacon 1593
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Unto the first of these, the considerations of the original of the soul, whether it be native or adventive, and how far it is exempted from laws of matter, and of the immortality thereof, and many other points, do appertain: which have been not more laboriously inquired than variously reported; so as the travail therein taken seemeth to have been rather in a maze than in a way.
The Advancement of Learning Francis Bacon 1593
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- Medicine, Botany, added from without; not essential; accidental; casual; acquired; adventive. adj., n.
xml's Blinklist.com 2008
qroqqa commented on the word adventive
But always to preserve the adventive
Minute, never to destroy the truth
—Lawrence Durrell, 'Cavafy'
March 21, 2009
janejetson commented on the word adventive
non-native
February 27, 2010