reductive
adjective
re·duc·tive ri-ˈdək-tiv 
1
: of, relating to, causing, or involving reduction
2
: of or relating to reductionism : reductionistic
reductively adverb
reductiveness noun
Example Sentences
a reductive interpretation of the theory
Recent Examples on the Web In retrospect, the once-constant comparisons between R.E.M. and U2 feel reductive and say little about either band’s individual quirks. 
Al Shipley, SPIN, 19 Aug. 2022 Critics have often described Lana’s songs as trip-hop, a label that usually comes off as reductive. Richard S. He, Billboard, 28 Aug. 2019 But that’s too reductive for what Lin has done here, which is to write a crime novel as a slice of life. David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2022 These are fables, which means on some level these 30-minute stories have to be reductive in some way. Sonaiya Kelleystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2022 Jaye Ayres-Brown is deliciously repugnant as Kean’s son Charles, portraying entitlement through exaggerated posture, reductive rhetoric and, eventually, an all-out temper tantrum. Thomas Floyd, Washington Post, 24 June 2022 Providing reductive lessons in gay culture, the grating voice-over describes Fire Island as a gay Disney World with a community separating levels of attraction based on race, ethnicity, wealth and body types. Robert Daniels, Los Angeles Times, 2 June 2022 To many readers, all of this will seem both obvious and somewhat reductive. Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 27 May 2022 Is that a reductive understanding of the experience of dyslexia? Kira Bindrim, Quartz, 16 May 2022 See More
Al Shipley, SPIN, 19 Aug. 2022 Critics have often described Lana’s songs as trip-hop, a label that usually comes off as reductive. Richard S. He, Billboard, 28 Aug. 2019 But that’s too reductive for what Lin has done here, which is to write a crime novel as a slice of life. David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2022 These are fables, which means on some level these 30-minute stories have to be reductive in some way. Sonaiya Kelleystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2022 Jaye Ayres-Brown is deliciously repugnant as Kean’s son Charles, portraying entitlement through exaggerated posture, reductive rhetoric and, eventually, an all-out temper tantrum. Thomas Floyd, Washington Post, 24 June 2022 Providing reductive lessons in gay culture, the grating voice-over describes Fire Island as a gay Disney World with a community separating levels of attraction based on race, ethnicity, wealth and body types. Robert Daniels, Los Angeles Times, 2 June 2022 To many readers, all of this will seem both obvious and somewhat reductive. Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 27 May 2022 Is that a reductive understanding of the experience of dyslexia? Kira Bindrim, Quartz, 16 May 2022 See More Word History
First Known Use
1633, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Medical Definition
reductive
adjective
re·duc·tive ri-ˈdək-tiv
: of, relating to, causing, or involving reduction