purposive

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

His subsequent efforts were as varied, if more grimly purposive, as the death-obsessed male protagonist’s stagings in “Harold and Maude,” or Bill Murray as Phil Connors, trying to escape the time loop in “Groundhog Day.”

From New York Times • Mar. 26, 2023

Policy is also purposive, or intended to do something; that is, policymaking is not random.

From Textbooks • Jul. 28, 2021

And her word choice with respect to the handful of claims she did rescind was purposive: It was unfailingly the media that was to blame.

From Slate • Feb. 5, 2021

If there is any hope for a better world, it lies in the daily effort to expand the circle of those we believe should be treated as full, purposive and dignified human beings.

From Washington Post • Aug. 1, 2019

Aristotle thought about the natural world in exactly the same way: that is to say, he saw it as the product of rational, purposive activity.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton