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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Neill plays the awkward, ignorant Scottish farmer who arranges for a mail-order marriage with Holly Hunter’s mute pianist and then becomes possessive and driven to jealous despair.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
With her husband so frequently absent, child-rearing fell almost entirely to Frances, who proved a loving but possessive mother.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
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
You’re is short for you are; your is the possessive form.
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
Booker Prize-winning author James Kelman uses apostrophes for possessives but not for contractions in his most recent work.
From Slate ● May 23, 2013
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
The most obvious examples are iterated possessives such as my mother’s brother’s wife’s father’s cousin.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
For an acquisitive society, were awfully careless about possessives.
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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