operativenessn.

1627 W. Sclater Briefe Expos. 2 Thess. 62 The cessation of sensible operatiuenesse of Grace.

a1655 R. Robinson Christ All (1656) 316 It hath not lost..that liveliness and operativeness which it once had.

1860 H. Bushnell Serm. for New Life (new ed.) 283 When we speak of natural objects, we call them great or small, not according to their operativeness, but according to size, count, report, or show.

1880 J. Muirhead Inst. of Gaius & Rules of Ulpian Digest 597 The operativeness of the substitutions depended..upon the consideration whether the institute and substitutes were nominated with or without cretion.

1918 Science 6 Sept. 252/1 All those facilities and technical qualifications prerequisite to the proper determination of such purely research questions as operativeness, and novelty of conception!

1982 Summary of World Broadcasts Pt. 2: Eastern Europe (B.B.C.) 8 Apr. EE/6999/B/1 What we mean by the expanding social role of the socialist state is not a multiplication of administrative ways and means, and particularly not a global operativeness, but a modification in the role of the state.

1990 M. Klein Determinism, Blameworthiness, & Deprivation v. 117 It is a necessary condition for knowing what our reasons for action were that the operativeness of those reasons was causally responsible for the belief that they were our reasons.