Respective

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈspɛktɪv/

Definitions

1. Belonging or relating separately to each of two or more people or things previously mentioned
2. Pertaining distinctly to each individual or item in a group already identified
3. Associated individually with each specified party or object in a prior context

Etymology: "Respective" arrived in English from Medieval Latin "respectivus," itself built on the Latin "respectus," the source of English "respect." The Latin root carries the sense of looking back or looking at something, which is why "respect" once meant careful regard or consideration before it came to mean esteem. The suffix "-ive" turns the noun into an adjective meaning having a certain quality or tendency. The word's modern job is distributive: when a sentence lists several items and then a set of matching items, "respective" pairs each one with its own counterpart. "The students returned to their respective classrooms" means each group went to its own room, not all to one place. That sense of separately regarding each member of a group grows naturally from the older idea of looking at things one by one.

Synonyms: individual, particular

Antonyms: collective