DEFINITIVE, adjective

1. Limiting the extent; determinate; positive; express; as a definitive term.

2. Limiting; ending; determining; final; opposed to conditional, provisional, or interlocutory; as a definitive sentence or decree.

DEFINITIVE, noun In grammar, an adjective used to define or limit the extent of the signification of an appelative or common noun. Such are the Latin hic, ille, ipse; the, this and that, in English; le, la, les, in French; il, la, lo in Italian. Thus tree is an appellative or common noun; the tree, this tree, that tree, designate a particular tree, determinate or known. Homo signifies man; hic homo, ille homo, a particular man, etc. But in some languages, the definitives have lost their original use, in a great degree; as in the Greek and French. Thus La force de la vertu, must be rendered in English, the force of virtue, not the force of the virtue. The first la is a definitive; the last has no definitive effect.