probative

Tending to prove a particular proposition or to persuade someone of the truth of an allegation.

Adjective

  1. Tending to prove a particular proposition or to persuade someone of the truth of an allegation.
    • The judge had granted the DA a one-week extension with the caustic admonition that the case would be summarily dismissed if at that time probative, as opposed to prejudicial, evidence was not produced. - 1999, Dana...
    • My grandfather in person organized the file with a surfeit of sworn testimonies and probative documents […] - 2003, Gabriel García Márquez, chapter 2, in Edith Grossman, transl., Living to Tell the Tale:

Origin

From Middle English probatiffe, from Old French probatif, from Latin probātīvus (“belonging to proof”), from Latin probare (“show, prove, demonstrate”) (See prove). Originally in terme probatiffe (“a period of time assigned for the proving of an allegation”). First attested in the mid-15th century.

Forms

more probative most probative

Antonyms

disprobative prejudicial

Derived

nonprobative probatively probativeness