possessive
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.
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She describes her three-year relationship with Paiva as incredibly loving, although she admits to being the more possessive of the two.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Most notably, there’s an attempt to mirror Latin grammar by omitting articles and possessive pronouns: “We stray from point.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
The inquest has also heard that Gunner Beck received thousands of messages from another senior colleague, Bombardier Ryan Mason, whom she described as being "psychotic and possessive".
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2025
As it moved through TikTok and Instagram, the term focused solely on the plural possessive, as people jokingly addressed their intangible audiences.
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2024
Sometimes it’s too clumsy to use a possessive with an ing word—for instance, when you’d have to make a whole string of words possessive, not just one.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
I wrote “our sycamore” above, but great trees defy possessives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2024
His world, at least as related to the tiny mark that denotes possessives and the omission of letters from certain words, appears to be crashing down around him.
From Slate ● May 23, 2013
Booker Prize-winning author James Kelman uses apostrophes for possessives but not for contractions in his most recent work.
From Slate ● May 23, 2013
As long as there are haves and have-nots, there will be questions about possessives.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
It’s also customary to drop the final s when forming the possessives of ancient classical or biblical names that already end in s: Whose biceps were bigger, Hercules’ or Achilles’?
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Vocabulary lists containing possessive
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Language and Grammar - Introductory
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves
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