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# respective

«respective» in Mova's school dictionary: **belonging to each one of the people or things just named…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (respective — used only before a noun)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Respective means belonging to each one of the people or things just named, in the same order. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#m1)

2) (formal) «Respectively» (adverb) means «in the order just given». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

A formal word from exams and maths problems: «Tom and Ann are 8 and 10 respectively» means Tom is 8 and Ann is 10. In everyday writing, «they went to their respective homes» = each went to his or her own home. Phrases: «their respective», «respectively».

### examples

- After the party, the children went back to their respective homes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#x1)
- Sam and Mia scored 7 and 9 points respectively. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#x2)
- The two teams sat in their respective changing rooms. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#x3)
- The boxes weigh 3 kg and 5 kg respectively. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#x4)
- Each pupil read their respective part of the play. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#x5)
- Ben and Lily have $12 and $20 respectively; how much do they have together? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#x6)
- All rose up as if from deep slumber, and went to their respective homes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/#x7)

### note

Formal word. Do not confuse with «respectful» (polite) or «respectable» (decent). In maths, «respectively» matches numbers to names in order: first number to first name, second to second — mixing them up gives a wrong answer.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «respective» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/respective/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.