adjective
- of or relating to reduction; serving to reduce or abridge: an urgent need for reductive measures.
- of or relating to change from one form to another: reductive chemical processes.
- employing an analysis of a complex subject into a simplified, less detailed form; of, pertaining to, or employing reductionism; reductionistic.
noun
- something causing or inducing a reductive process.
1630s, “that reduces;” 1650s, “that leads or brings back,” from Medieval Latin reductivus, from reduct-, past participle stem of Latin reducere (see reduce). Related: Reductively.