Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Provocative |
ProvocativeAdjective1. Serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate; stimulating discussion or exciting controversy; "a provocative remark"; "a provocative smile"; "provocative Irish tunes which...compel the hearers to dance"- Anthony Trollope. 2. Exciting sexual desire; "her gestures and postures became more wanton and provocative". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "provocative" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
| Antonym: unprovocative (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Excitation | Piquant; (pungent); spicy, appetizing, provocative, provoquant, tantalizing. |
Motive | Incentive, stimulus, spur, fillip, whip, goad, ankus, rowel, provocative, whet, dram. |
Adjective: impulsive, motive; suasive, suasory, persuasive, persuasory, hortative, hortatory; protreptical; inviting, tempting; Verb: suasive, suasory; seductive, attractive; fascinating; (pleasing); provocative; (exciting). | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Provocative |
| English words defined with "provocative": challenging, coy, coyness ♦ demure, demureness ♦ fandango ♦ Incitative, intriguing ♦ overmodest ♦ piquant, provocatively, Provocativeness, Provocatory, provokingly ♦ salty ♦ tart up ♦ unprovocative, unprovoking. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "provocative": COCK ALE ♦ preventive maintenance ♦ Shwartzman Phenomenon. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "provocative": Incitative. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Well, with that philosophy you must have had a provocative career (Brigadoon; writing credit: Alan Jay Lerner) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Another controversial approach is called sublingual or, if it is injected under the skin, subcutaneous provocative challenge. (references) | |
Although lack of rationale for the activity of the combination should not preclude acceptance of its demonstrated benefits, efforts to build subsequent clinical trials on the provocative results of the 5-FU/levamisole trial are hampered by the absence of data on the immunomodulatory effect, if any, or on the mechanism of action of the combination. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Liberia | In general journalists are outspoken and even provocative; however, journalists also practice self-censorship, especially in regard to information about the President and his immediate family members and particularly after being threatened or harassed. (references) |
Israel and the occupied territories | Adalah has noted that Jewish MK's and political leaders made inflammatory or provocative remarks during the year but were not investigated. (references) | |
Georgia | In 2000 the President publicly criticized the daily newspaper Rezonansi for reporting comments by an opposition politician in Parliament who called for the overthrow of the "Shevardnadze regime." The President asked the Procuracy to investigate the newspaper, which he stated had a history of provocative, antigovernment news coverage. (references) | |
Economic History | South Korea | On his inauguration in February 1998, Kim enunciated an engagement policy toward the North based on the separation of economic and political issues yet taking a firm line on security, with zero tolerance for provocations from the D.P.R.K. This approach has been maintained despite strong domestic criticism from the opposition GNP and occasional provocative behavior by the D.P.R.K., including attempted infiltrations into the South and a clash between D.P.R.K. and R.O.K. naval ships in the Yellow Sea in June 1999, during which several North Korean vessels were damaged or sunk. (references) |
Haiti | On February 6, 2001, the Democratic Convergence named respected lawyer and human rights activist Gerard Gourgue as provisional president of their "alternative government." Gourgue called the act "symbolic," designed to protest flawed elections, yet he also issued a provocative call to re-establish the Haitian Army which then-President Aristide had disbanded upon his return from exile. (references) | |
Minorities | Romania | The Romanian Orthodox Church has attacked the "aggressive proselytizing" of Protestant, neo-Protestant, and other religious groups, which the Church repeatedly has described as "sects." There is no law against proselytizing, or clear understanding of what activities consist of proselytizing; however, proselytizing that involves denigrating established churches is perceived as provocative. (references) |
Political Economy | Israel and the occupied territories | A number of NGO's claim that these restrictions often exceed those justified by security concerns, and that they are provocative and incite public reaction. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | On Open Line Friday this week, we had a very provocative and controversial phone call from a graduate student named Libby in Piscataway, New Jersey. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963-1969 | Even in the absence of agreement, we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Provocative" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Provocative" is used about 356 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% | 356 | 15,102 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "provocative": provocative maintenance. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "provocative": non-provocative. | |
| 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. |
| Language | Translations for "provocative"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | provokues (defiant), nxitës (abetter, abettor, aphrodisiac, cordial, encouraging, excitant, fillip, fire brand, fomenter, hortative, hortatory, impellent, incendiary, incentive, inciting, inflammatory, instigator, lively, mainspring, piquant, poignant, promoter, sexy, sponsor, stimulant, stimulating, warmonger), ngacmues (annoying, excitative, excitatory, exciter, exciting, irritant, irritative, provoking, stimulant, teaser). (various references) | |
Arabic | مهيج (agitating, exciting, incendiary, rousing, tease), مغضب (enraging, exasperating, infuriating, irritating, maddening, provoking), محرض (abettor, seditious, stirrer), متحد مستفز (challenger, defier), مثير (agitating, breathtaking, electrifying, excitant, excitative, exciting, fomenting, galvanizing, hair raising, impetus, incentive, inciting, inspiring, instigating, irritative, provoking, rousing, sensational, sore, spectacular, stimulant, stimulating, stimulative, stirring, thrilling), إستفزازي. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | смел (adventurous, ambitious, audacious, bold, brave, courageous, daring, dashing, gallant, game, gamy, gritty, gutsy, high-hearted, high-spirited, manful, manly, martial, mettled, mettlesome, plucky, slashing, spirited, spunky, stalwart, stout, stouthearted, thoroughbred, valiant, venturesome), възбудително средство (exciter, stimulant, stimulus), оригинален (genuine, novel, original, patent, picturesque, protoplastic, unconventional, unhackneyed, unworn), нещо което предизвиква, нещо което дразни (irritant), будещ, провокаторски, провокиращ, предизвикващ, предизвикателен (defiant, provoking), пораждащ (originative, productive), интересен (arresting, exciting, interesting, newsy, picturesque, sapid), дразнещ (abrasive, dirty, exasperating, harassing, irritant, irritating, irritative, jarring, pestiferous, raspy, trying, vexatious). (various references) | |
Chinese | 诱惑 (Entice, Enticed, Enticement, Enticing, seduce, seduced, Seducing, tempt, temptation, Tempted, tempting). (various references) | |
Czech | provokativní, podnìtný (challenging, imaginative, interesting), vyzývavý (defiant, saucy). (various references) | |
Danish | provokationsnystagmus (provocative nystagmus), provokationsdiagnostik (provocation diagnostics, provocative diagnosis), vandprovokationstest (provocative water test), udløsende injektion (provocative injection). (various references) | |
Dutch | provocatieve diagnose (provocation diagnostics, provocative diagnosis), na-nystagmus (provocative nystagmus). (various references) | |
Farsi | محرک (Irritant, Motive, Propellant, Stimulant, Stimulus), عصبانی کننده (Outrageous), برانگیزنده (Impressive, Irritant). (various references) | |
French | provocant. (various references) | |
German | provokativ (provoking), aufreizend (egging, infuriatingly, irritant, maddening, salacious, slinkily, slinky, suggestively, tantalizing, tantalizingly). (various references) | |
Greek | προκλητικόσ (defiant, outrageous, provoking), προκλητικός, εξερεθιστικόσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | ק טר י (annoying, catty, quarrelsome, spiteful, teasing, vexing), פרובוקטיבי. (various references) | |
Hungarian | provokatív (provoking), kihívó (challenger, challenging, defiant, flaunting, flaunty, slinky). (various references) | |
Italian | provocatorio (defiant), provocante (provoking, suggestive), stimolante (appetiser, appetizer, challenging, exciting, pep pill, stimulant). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 挑発的 (lascivious, suggestive). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ちょうはつてき (lascivious, suggestive). (various references) | |
Korean | 도발 (Provoking). (various references) | |
Manx | goan brasnee (provocative words, provoking language). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ovocativepray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | provocante (provoking), provocador (defiant, provoking), irritante (acrid, annoying, grating, irritating, provoking), excitante (burning, excitant, exciter, exciting, rousing, sexy, whet), exasperador (aggravating, exasperating, provoking), estimulante (bracing, fresh, life-giving, pick-me-up, rousing, stimulant, suggestive, tonic, whet), enervante (darned, nagging, provoking). (various references) | |
Romanian | provocator (defiant, firebrand, instigator, provoker, provoking), stimulator (motive, stimulant, stimulating), obraznic (audacious, bad, barefaced, bold, boldly, brazenly, cheekily, cheeky, cocky, contemptuous, cool, disobedient, flippant, forward, fresh, graceless, impertinent, impudent, insolent, nasty, naughty, nervy, obtrusive, perky, pert, pertly, presumptuous, rebellious, sauce box, saucy, unruly, untoward, uppish), impertinent (cocky, gay, impertinent, insolent, insolently, obtrusive, rude), care provoacã. (various references) | |
Russian | вызывающий (defiant), возбудитель вызывающий, возбудитель (exciter, fillip, stirrer-up), задорный (full of life, sprightly), провокационный. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | provokativan (provoking), izazovan (challenging). (various references) | |
Spanish | provocativo (aggressive, defiant, inviting, seductive, sexy). (various references) | |
Swedish | provokativ, utmanande (defiant, ostentatious). (various references) | |
Turkish | provokatör (provo, provocateur), tahrikçi (agitator, fomenter, prompter, provo, provocateur, provocator, seditious, setter-on), kışkırtıcı (agitator, coat-trailing, demagog, demagogue, factionist, factious, fomenter, incendiary, instigating, instigator, irritant, plotter, provocateur, rabble-rousing, seditious, setter-on, stumper). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | спокусливий (alluring, aphrodisiac, desirable, enticing, fetching, glittering, pin up, piquant, provocatory, seductive, tempting, wooing), зухвалий (aggressive, audacious, barefaced, bold, bold-faced, brazen faced, cheeky, cocksy, cocky, coxy, daring, flip, immodest, impertinent, insolent, necky, overbearing, perky, pert, provocatory, pushing, rousing, saucy, wise), задирливий (aggressive, contentious, provocatory), збудник (exciter, goad, wakener), провокаційний (provocatory), подразник (irritant), дратівний (aggravating, annoying, grating, irritant, jarring, maddening, provocatory, provoking, trying). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | incentivus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "provocative": provocatively, provocativeness, provocativenesses, provocatives. (additional references) | |
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"Provocative" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: probocative, provacative, provactive, provcative, provocatvie, provocitive, provoctive, provorative, provovative, rovocative. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "provocative" (pronounced prōvÄ"kutiv) |
| 7 | -v Ä" k u t i v | evocative. |
| 5 | -k u t i v | communicative, duplicative, indicative, talkative. |
| 4 | -u t i v | accusative, acquisitive, additive, affirmative, alliterative, alternative, anticompetitive, argumentative, causative, cognitive, commemorative, comparative, competitive, consecutive, conservative, consultative, contemplative, cumulative, curative, decorative, definitive, degenerative, demonstrative, derivative, diminutive, dispositive, executive, expletive, exploitative, Federative, figurative, fixative, formative, fugitive, generative, hypersensitive, illustrative, imaginative, imperative, infinitive, informative, initiative, inoperative, inquisitive, insensitive, interpretive, intuitive, laxative, lucrative, narrative, negative, neoconservative, noncompetitive, noncumulative, nonexecutive, normative, nutritive, operative, palliative, participative, pejorative, positive, prerogative, preservative, preventative, primitive, prohibitive, punitive, putative, recuperative, relative, remunerative, rep, repetitive, representative, restorative, secretive, sedative, sensitive, speculative, superlative, tentative, ultraconservative, uncompetitive, uncooperative, unimaginative, uninformative, unrepresentative, vituperative. |
| 3 | -t i v | accommodative, abortive, accumulative, active, adaptive, addictive, adjective, administrative, adoptive, affective, appointive, appreciative, assaultive, assertive, attentive, attractive, authoritative, automotive, captive, collaborative, collective, combative, conductive, congestive, connective, constructive, contraceptive, cooperative, corrective, corruptive, counterproductive, creative, deceptive, defective, deliberative, descriptive, destructive, detective, digestive, dilutive, directive, disincentive, disparages, disruptive, dissipative, distinctive, distributive, effective, elective, elucidative, eruptive, exhaustive, exploitive, facultative, festive, furtive, hyperactive, imitative, inactive, inattentive, incentive, ineffective, infective, injunctive, innovative, instinctive, instructive, interactive, introspective, invective, inventive, investigative, irrespective, iterative, legislative, locomotive, manipulative, meditative, motive, native, nonautomotive, nonnative, nonproductive, objective, obstructive, octave, overactive, perceptive, perspective, photoconductive, plaintive, predictive, preemptive, presumptive, preventive, proactive, probative, productive, prognosticative, projective, prospective, protective, qualitative, quantitative, radioactive, reactive, receptive, reconstructive, redemptive, redistributive, reflective, refractive, regulative, rehabilitative, reproductive, respective, restive, restrictive, retroactive, retrospective, seductive, selective, stimulative, subjective, substantive, suggestive, superconductive, supportive, unattractive, unproductive, unreceptive, vegetative, vindictive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-i-o-o-p-r-t-v-v" | |
-2 letters: proactive. | |
-3 letters: evocator, operatic, overcoat, vocative. | |
-4 letters: apricot, aprotic, captive, ectopia, erotica, evictor, overact, overapt, overtip, overtop, paretic, parotic, picrate, portico, private. | |
-5 letters: active, aortic, atopic, avocet, capote, captor, carpet, cartop, cavort, coater, cooper, cooter, cootie, copier, copter, corvet, covert, erotic, octave, octavo, octopi, octroi, opiate, pavior, picaro, pirate, poetic, preact, privet, protea, protei. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-i-o-o-p-r-t-v-v" | |
+1 letter: provocatives. | |
+2 letters: provocatively. | |
+4 letters: provocativeness. | |
| 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. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Quotations: Spoken 7. Quotations: Speeches 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
