Recommendative

Recommendative is an English adjective relating to recommendation or to the act of recommending. It describes things that serve to recommend or to urge a particular course of action. The form is built from the verb recommend plus the suffix -ive, and is closely related in meaning to adjectives such as recommendatory and advisory.

In contemporary usage, recommendative is relatively rare and may be considered formal, archaic, or specialized. It is more commonly encountered in linguistic discussions, formal documents, or historical texts. In many contexts, writers prefer synonyms such as recommendatory, advisory, or suggestive to convey a guidance-focused sense without the potential ambiguity of recommendative.

Common contexts for the word include formal or legal drafting, policy discussions, and linguistic analysis where the emphasis is on language that proposes or urges action rather than commands. For example, a policy document might include a recommendative statement urging compliance with guidelines, or a committee could issue a recommendative resolution that expresses support or a preferred course of action without binding effect. In practice, many editors replace recommendative with recommendatory or advisory to improve clarity.

See also: advisory, recommendatory, recommendation, recommend.