relative

adj

1. (not-comparable)Connected to or depending on something else; comparative.

   “I once knew a case—possibly I read of it—where a pack of cards lay on the floor. It was a murder case and the guilt or innocence of an accused man depended on the relative positions of the fifty-first and fifty-second cards.”

   “For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.”

   “It is thought that the autistic mind is more intimately connected with objective reality via its external sensory focus on reality and its superior understanding of physical causality, relative to neurotypical persons (Baron-Cohen et al. 1999; Paganini and Gaido 2013) and is therefore less susceptible to supernatural experiences or explanations.”

2. (not-comparable)Expressed in relation to another item, rather than in complete form.

   “The relative URL /images/pic.jpg, when evaluated in the context of http://example.com/index.html, corresponds to the absolute URL http://example.com/images/pic.jpg.”

3. (not-comparable)Depending on an antecedent; comparative.

   “The words “big” and “small” are relative.”

4. (not-comparable)Having the same key but differing in being major or minor.
5. (archaic, not-comparable, rare)Relevant; pertinent; related.

   “relative to your earlier point about taxes, ...”

   “The Spirit that I haue ſeene May be the Diuell, and the Diuel hath power T'aſſume a pleaſing ſhape, yea and perhaps Out of my Weakneſſe, and my Melancholly, As he is very potent with ſuch Spirits, Abuſes me to damne me. Ile haue grounds More Relatiue then this: The play's the thing, Wherein Ile catch the Conſcience of the King.”

6. (not-comparable)Capable to be changed by other beings or circumstance; conditional.

adv

1. (US, alt-of, alternative, not-comparable)Alternative form of relatively.

   “In 1924 it moved to a commonious campus at Stockton. Like other Californian colleges, however, it decided to remain a relative small institution.”

   “Mr. Schneebell. Instead of the relative small number of cases, you should phrase it probably differently. Professor Brazer. I accept that correction.”

   “In addition to the typical external disturbances faced by small open economies, such as shocks to terms of trade, to capital flows, or to the rest of the world’s demand, it is subject to a number of idiosyncratic shocks stemming from its relative big neighbors Brazil and—especially—Argentina.”

noun

1. Someone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption; someone in the same family.

   “The eldest son was usually given the name of his paternal grandfather, later children those of other relatives.”

   “In 2008, the leader of a pro-government union accused Flores of nepotism after she reportedly hired at least 40 relatives to work within the National Assembly.”

2. (figuratively)Something kindred or related to something else.
3. A type of adjective that inflects like a relative clause, rather than a true adjective, in certain Bantu languages.