Mittekehtivate

Mittekehtivate is an Estonian adjectival form meaning not valid or not in force. It is used to describe documents, agreements, regulations, or other instruments that do not have legal effect. The word is formed by the negative prefix mitte- attached to kehtiv (valid/in force). The specific form mittekehtivate is the genitive plural of the adjective, used to modify a noun in the genitive case, for example mittekehtivate dokumentide “of invalid documents.” The corresponding nominative plural is mittekehtivad, meaning invalid.

Usage and context: The term appears primarily in legal, administrative, or academic texts where there is a need to distinguish between instruments that are currently enforceable and those that are not. It can be found in phrases such as mittekehtivad lepingud (invalid contracts), mittekehtivad regulatsioonid (invalid regulations), or mittekehtivate dokumentide loetelu (list of invalid documents). As a descriptive form, it follows standard Estonian inflection patterns for adjectives.

Origins and notes: Mittekehtivate is a descriptive neologism rather than an older, historically entrenched term. It results from ordinary Estonian morphology, combining mitte- with kehtiv and inflecting accordingly. It is not restricted to a single field and may occur in corpora, glossaries, or language-learning materials to illustrate negation and agreement in Estonian.

See also: kehtivus, kehtiv, mitte- (negation), validity, enforceability.