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by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2006

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Which is correct: distinct or distinctive? Do they mean the same thing and is one preferred over the other?

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  • by yoho05 reminds you to DYOH on November 22nd, 2006

    yoho05 reminds you to DYOH

    They are both correct words, but with slightly different meanings. Distinct means 'unmistakable, plain, clearly perceptible, definite and individual.'
    Distinctive means 'charactersistic.'

    Let me use the following 2 similar phrases to illutrate:

    The hallway has a distinct smell of soap - it smells like soap, although soap is not something that you usually associate with a hallway and the smell is clearly different from any other smells that may be in the hallway (such as a wet dog or old shoes.)

    The bathroom has the distinctive smell of Ivory Soap - it smells like Ivory Soap as compared to some other kind of soap.

    There are situations where the two could be interchangeable, depending on your meaning.

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  • by ChrisDG on November 22nd, 2006

    ChrisDG

    Both are correct at certain times, as both are proper words. Distinct is an adjective and would be used as in "there is a distinct difference between a cat's purr and a dog's growl". Distinctive is also an adjective but is used more for when referring to a specific entity that is unique and separates it (or them) from all others, such as "a cat's purr is distinctive".

    So it depends on how the sentence is worded which you would use. If they are comparing two or more things, generally use dictinct, if you are talking about one thing and saying it is different from all others, generally use distinctive.

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