DictionarypossessiveGrammatical ownership
adjective / noun

possessive

A grammatical form showing ownership or association.

A possessive noun shows who owns something or how things relate.

Etymology

The Latin word family concerns possessing or holding. The grammatical label identifies forms that express possession or a related association.

More examples

  • The possessive of “child” is “child’s.”
  • In “today’s weather,” the possessive shows association rather than ownership.
  • Regular plural possessives, such as “dogs’,” end with an apostrophe.

Forms

possessive · possessives

Similar words

genitive
Names a grammatical case expressing possession and other relationships.