respective

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are useful words when two or more items need to be distinguished (in the order in which they occur, when they are named separately) in relation to what follows in the sentence:

Middle English (from 1150 to 1500)Ps are paid the same as national MPs in their respective countries—Which?, 1984

Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes, who starred for Minghella in Cold Mountain and The English Patient respectively, will head the cast—Times, 2007.

In the first of these examples, the presence of respective shows that the national MPs are paid at different levels depending on their countries, and in the second the presence of respectively shows that the two actors starred separately, each in one film and not together in both. In other cases, respective (in particular) is redundant or replaceable by a simpler word such as own or various:

The parade dispersed, the Commandos returning to their respective units, and soon the village green was quiet—B. Millin, 1991.

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adj

Definition: particular, specific
Antonyms: indefinite

IN BRIEF: adj. - Considered individually.

Churchill and Hitler are striving to change the nature of their respective countrymen by forcing and hammering violent methods on them. — Gandhi, Source: speaking at a Sevagram prayer meeting, October 22, 1941

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For a list of words related to respective, see:

• Emphasizers

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - respektive, hver sin

Nederlands (Dutch)
respectievelijk

Français (French)
adj. - respectif

Deutsch (German)
adj. - jeweilig

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - αντίστοιχος, ανάλογος, σχετικός, αμοιβαίος

Italiano (Italian)
rispettivo, relativo

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - respectivo

Русский (Russian)
соответствующий

Español (Spanish)
adj. - respectivo

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - respektive, varsin

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
分别的, 各自的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 分別的, 各自的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 저마다의, 각자의

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - それぞれの, めいめいの

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) خصوصي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮השייך לו, המיוחד לו, המתאים לו, שלו‬

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