operative
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.
As a KGB operative and then an assiduous apparatchik, he avoided attention.
From BBC • May 30, 2026
“The operative word is not ‘resist’ — it’s ‘create,’ ” California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild told hundreds of attendees at the Pacific Offshore Wind Summit in Long Beach recently.
From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2026
A U.S. special-forces operative has been charged with using classified information to reap more than $400,000 from bets on the ouster of Venezuela’s president.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 24, 2026
This is not Madman Theory, but the operative word here—the word that doesn’t fit—is theory.
From Slate • Apr. 21, 2026
White sent Hoover a memo reporting that an undercover operative was on Hale’s ranch that very moment, spying.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Vocabulary lists containing operative
100 SAT words Beginning with "O"
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Intelligence leaks
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Lincoln's Grave Robbers
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