reductive

Adjective

1. Pertaining to the reduction of a decree etc.; rescissory.
2. Causing the physical reduction or diminution of something.
3. That reduces a substance etc. to a more simple or basic form.
   • On the relative reductive powers of different classes of American coals, as demonstrated by the experiments with oxide of lead. - 1848, F Knapp, Chemical Technology; Or, Chemistry Applied to the Arts and to Manufactures:
   • It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity...
4. That can be derived from, or referred back to, something else.
   • But then beside the primary and direct sense of the text, the ancients commonly supposed that there was a reductive or anagogical meaning, in which it might be taken. - 1847, John Johnson, The theological works of the...
5. That reduces an argument, issue etc. to its most basic terms; simplistic, reductionist.