determinative

adjective

1. serving to determine; determining.

noun

2. something that determines.
3. a graphic symbol used in ideographic writing to denote a semantic class and written next to a word to indicate in what semantic category that word is to be understood, thus at times distinguishing homographs.

adjective

1. able to or serving to settle or determine; deciding

noun

2. a factor, circumstance, etc, that settles or determines
3. grammar a less common word for determiner
4. (in a logographic writing system) a logogram that bears a separate meaning, from which compounds and inflected forms are built up

adj.

1650s, from French déterminatif (15c.), from Latin determinat-, past participle stem of determinare (see determine). As a noun from 1832.