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talkative

UK/ˈtɔː.kə.tɪv/US/ˈtɔ.kə.ɾɪv/
adjectiveB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,702 of 15,258leans spoken

Talkative means fond of talking a great deal. A talkative child, unusually talkative, less talkative than usual.

It is neutral to mildly critical depending on the tone, and less talkative than usual is how people describe somebody who is worried. It is one of the few common English words formed with -ative on a plain Germanic root rather than a Latin one.

Definitions of talkative

  1. 1adjectivetalkativeFond of talking a great deal.B1+

    “My little sister is so talkative that she doesn't stop for breath all the way to school.”

talkative is a quality.

Where it comes from

Talk plus -ative, an unusual pairing of an English root with a Latin ending.

  1. Middle English

    talkatyve

  2. English, today

    talkative

From Middle English talkatyve, equivalent to talk + ative.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

talkative in the wild

  • In modern use, it is used as a slang term, especially in Yorkshire, England for a gossipy or overly talkative person.

    Flibbertigibbet

  • The word krotalon is often applied, by an easy metaphor, to a noisy talkative person (Aristoph.

    Crotalum

  • The film shows a talkative goat, about to be slaughtered telling a story of a woman boxer of Kolkata to the butcher.

    Khasi Katha– A Goat Saga

  • The name is of Brittonic origin, from labaro, meaning "talkative", i.e. a babbling brook.

    River Laver

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.