Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Convulsive |
ConvulsiveAdjective1. Affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm; "convulsive motions"; "his body made a spasmodic jerk"; "spastic movements". 2. Resembling a convulsion in being sudden and violent; "a convulsive rage"; "convulsive laughter". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "convulsive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1690. (references) |
Etymology: Convulsive \Con*vul"sive\, adjective. [Compare to the French expression convulsif.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Medicine | Relating or referring to spasm; affected with spasm; characterized by a spasm or spasms. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: ConvulsiveSynonyms: spasmodic (adj), spastic (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Agitation | Adjective: shaking; Verb: agitated tremulous; desultory, subsultory; saltatoric; quasative; shambling; giddy-paced, saltatory, convulsive, unquiet, restless, all of a twitter. |
Violence | Spasmodic, convulsive, explosive; detonating; Verb: volcanic, meteoric; stormy; (wind). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Convulsive |
| English words defined with "convulsive": cachinnation, Choreic, Convulsionary, convulsively, Crispation ♦ Face ague ♦ hilarious ♦ posttraumatic epilepsy ♦ Raphany ♦ screaming, SOB, sobbing, Stringhalt, Subsultus ♦ traumatic epilepsy ♦ uproarious ♦ Whooping cough, with convulsions. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "convulsive": chills, Convulsive Therapy ♦ ghost ♦ Neuromuscular Blocking Agents, Neuromuscular Nondepolarizing Agents ♦ oxygen paradox ♦ posthypoxia paradox ♦ Sardonic Smile, Grin, or Laughter. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Berserk; beside oneself; blazing; carried away; convulsive; crazed; crazy; delirious; distracted; distraught; emotional; excited; agitated; fiery; frantic; frenzied; fuming; furious; impassioned; impetuous; incensed; irrepressible; mad; maddened; nervous. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | His face, an inexhaustible repertory of masks, made more convulsive and more fantastic grimaces than the mouths of a torn cloth in a heavy wind. |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | Easily, with a few convulsive quirks, they give up their watery ghosts, like a mortal translated before his time to the thin air of heaven. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Few experiences match the drama of a convulsive seizure. (references) | |
People in status epilepticus do not always have severe convulsive seizures. (references) | ||
LKS may also be called infantile acquired aphasia, acquired epileptic aphasia or aphasia with convulsive disorder. (references) | ||
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | GHOST, n. The outward and visible sign of an inward fear. He saw a ghost. It occupied -- that dismal thing! -- The path that he was following. Before he'd time to stop and fly, An earthquake trifled with the eye That saw a ghost. He fell as fall the early good; Unmoved that awful vision stood. The stars that danced before his ken He wildly brushed away, and then He saw a post. Jared Macphester Accounting for the uncommon behavior of ghosts, Heine mentions somebody's ingenious theory to the effect that they are as much afraid of us as we of them. Not quite, if I may judge from such tables of comparative speed as I am able to compile from memories of my own experience. There is one insuperable obstacle to a belief in ghosts. A ghost never comes naked: he appears either in a winding-sheet or "in his habit as he lived." To believe in him, then, is to believe that not only have the dead the power to make themselves visible after there is nothing left of them, but that the same power inheres in textile fabrics. Supposing the products of the loom to have this ability, what object would they have in exercising it? And why does not the apparition of a suit of clothes sometimes walk abroad without a ghost in it? These be riddles of significance. They reach away down and get a convulsive grip on the very tap-root of this flourishing faith. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John Quincy Adams | 1825-1829 | The irregular and convulsive character of the war upon the shores has been extended to the conflicts upon the ocean. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Convulsive" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Convulsive" is used about 53 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 53 | 46,657 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "convulsive": Convulsive Therapy. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "convulsive": electro-convulsive. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
electro convulsive therapy | 23 |
convulsive electric therapy | 5 |
convulsive syncope | 3 |
convulsive seizure | 2 |
convulsive therapy | 2 |
convulsive electro treatment | 2 |
convulsive | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "convulsive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | konvulsiv (paroxysmal), i vrullshëm (blusterous, blustery, darting, dashing, drastic, explosive, impetuous, rash, rattling, spasmodic, sudden, sweeping, tearaway, tearing, thrifty, vehement, vigorous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | â€Ù…تشنج (jerky), â€ØªØ´Ù†Ø¬ÙŠ (fitful, spasmodic, spastic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | конвулÑивен (jerky, spasmodic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 震动性. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | křeèovitý (fitful, forced, spasmodic, spastic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | convulsiv (spasmodic, spastic), spastisk (spasmodic, spastic), spasmodisk (spasmodic), krampagtig (spasmodic, spastic), konvulsiv. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | convulsief. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | kouristuksenomainen (spasmodic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | convulsif. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | krampfhaft (desperate, forced, frantic, spasmodic), konvulsiv. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | σπασμωδικόσ (fitful, jerky, jumpy, spasmodic, spastic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | עויתי (spasmodic, spastic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | vonagló (squirming), görcsös (cramp, fitful, spasmodic, spastic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | convulsivo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 급격한 (sudden). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | co-leaystagh (cataclysmic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | onvulsivecay convulsivo (spasmodic), espasmódico (clonic, cramped, fitful, spasmodic, spastic). (various references) convulsiv (fitful, jerkily, jerky, spasmodic). (various references) Ñудорожный (fitful, paroxysmal, spasmodic, spastic), конвульÑивный. (various references) konvulzivan (sardonic), grÄevit (fitful, jerky, spasmodic). (various references) convulsivo. (various references) krampaktig (jerky, spasmodic). (various references) sarsan (jarring, shaky, staggering), kasılan, çırpınma (clonus, convulsion, flutter, spasm, struggle). (various references) Ñудомний, конвульÑивний. (various references) chấn Ä‘á»™ng (vibrational, vibratory), náo Ä‘á»™ng (tumultuous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "convulsive": convulsively, convulsiveness, convulsivenesses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "convulsive": anticonvulsive, electroconvulsive. (additional references) | |
Words containing "convulsive": anticonvulsives. (additional references) | |
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"Convulsive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: consultive. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "convulsive" (pronounced kunvu"lsiv) |
| 5 | -u" l s i v | compulsive, impulsive, repulsive. |
| 3 | -s i v | abrasive, abusive, adhesive, aggressive, allusive, apprehensive, aversive, coercive, cohesive, collusive, comprehensive, conclusive, conducive, corrosive, counteroffensive, decisive, defensive, depressive, derisive, discursive, dismissive, dispersive, divisive, effusive, elusive, erosive, evasive, excessive, exclusive, expansive, expensive, explosive, expressive, extensive, hypertensive, illusive, impassive, impressive, incisive, inclusive, inconclusive, indecisive, inexpensive, inoffensive, intrusive, invasive, massive, missive, nonexclusive, nonresponsive, obsessive, obtrusive, offensive, oppressive, passive, pensive, permissive, persuasive, pervasive, possessive, progressive, recessive, reclusive, reflexive, regressive, repressive, responsive, submissive, subversive, successive, unimpressive, unobtrusive, unresponsive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-i-l-n-o-s-u-v-v" | |
-2 letters: convulse, evulsion, involves, unvoices. | |
-3 letters: cineols, counsel, elusion, envious, inclose, involve, leucins, niveous, novices, unclose, uncoils, unlives, unveils, unvoice. | |
-4 letters: cineol, clevis, clines, clones, clonus, cloven, cloves, coleus, colies, colins, conies, consul, cosine, coulis, cousin, covens, covins, eloins, enolic, ensoul, envois, icones, incuse, insole, insoul, lesion, leucin, levins, livens, louies, lunies, nicols, novels. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-i-l-n-o-s-u-v-v" | |
+2 letters: convulsively. | |
+4 letters: anticonvulsive, convulsiveness. | |
+5 letters: anticonvulsives. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Sounds 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Quotations: Speeches | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
