decisivede‧ci‧sive /dɪˈsaɪsɪv/ ●○○ adjective 
Women can play a decisive role in the debate over cloning.decisive action/steps We will take decisive steps towards political union with Europe.2someone who is decisive is good at making decisions quickly and with confidence OPP indecisive: a decisive leader a talent for quick decisive action3definite and clear in a way that leaves no doubt OPP indecisivedecisive victory/result/defeat etc The answer was a decisive no.—decisively adverb: Yet again, we have failed to act decisively.—decisiveness noun [uncountable]: military decisiveness the speed and decisiveness of his victory
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- a decisive election victory
- the decisive battle of the war
- This country needs strong, decisive leadership.
- We are still waiting for Jim to make up his mind. I wish he would be more decisive.
- When asked about the possibility, his answer was a decisive "no."
- Gradually it emerged that his concern for his country was the decisive factor in his changed attitude.
- However well you try to equip yourself, qualifications are unlikely to be the decisive factor.
- I thought I might win something decisive with her.
- In any race during the previous four years that would have been decisive.
- In connection with the depiction of home makers as competent and decisive, the reader is offered two important insights here.
- In numerous races, evangelical voters were of decisive influence in deciding the outcome.
- It found that had Costa Rica been consulted, its opinion would have been decisive, precisely the situation envisaged in 1858.
- The door was opened by the gipsy girl who with a decisive movement turned the handle and pulled it wide.
Longman Language Activatorable to make decisions quickly and firmly
someone who is decisive can make decisions firmly and confidently, without needing too much time to talk about them or think about them: · We are still waiting for Jim to make up his mind. I wish he would be more decisive.· This country needs strong, decisive leadership.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Women can play a decisive role in the debate over cloning. We will take decisive steps towards political union with Europe. a talent for quick decisive action Yet again, we have failed to act decisively.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Women can play a decisive role in the debate over cloning. We will take decisive steps towards political union with Europe. a talent for quick decisive action Yet again, we have failed to act decisively. (=that has a big effect on the way something develops)· We are urging the international community to take decisive action on debt relief.
(=the one that has the biggest effect)· The support of middle-income voters was the decisive factor in the election.
· The battle was a decisive victory for the US.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Important though this visit was as a political signpost, a far more decisive meeting was to follow.· Public religion was not just talk; it issued in action more decisive than the kind George Washington supported.· It will be more messy, more dangerous, but perhaps more decisive.· Much stronger pressures and probably more decisive action was necessary in these circumstances.· The evidence from shrines, temples and churches erected to meet the needs of literate societies is even more decisive.
· Of the smaller parties, the Workers' Party was the most decisive in favouring the change.· Scottsdale voters took the most decisive action last May, approving a sales-tax increase to buy land in the McDowell Mountains.· Then we enter the famous city of Gettysburg, site of the last and most decisive battle of the Civil War.· It is doubtless the affective aspect of the human soul that is most decisive in our behavioural choices.· She would then telephone Miranda, the most decisive of the three sisters.
NOUN· No one else could have done this as well as Lanfranc with his orderly mind and power of decisive action.· Conversely, there might be too little capacity for decisive action in a cabinet system when there is no stable majority.· David Oakenson says that if guilt is proved then decisive action should be taken.· Suddenly Newland Archer felt himself impelled to decisive action.· When will the Government take decisive action and end the hell of a mess in that section of industry?· By streamlining operations, they took the proper, decisive action.· Much stronger pressures and probably more decisive action was necessary in these circumstances.· Scottsdale voters took the most decisive action last May, approving a sales-tax increase to buy land in the McDowell Mountains.
· Then we enter the famous city of Gettysburg, site of the last and most decisive battle of the Civil War.· The invasion would then be easy, but the hope of luring the enemy fleet into decisive battle would be gone.· A hundred thousand soldiers seems to have been the maximum any Hellenistic state was able to gather together for a decisive battle.· Moves towards them prove that reform is not a lost cause, but that it needs champions and decisive battles.· The aim which obsessed military thinking was the winning of a decisive battle soon after the outbreak of war.· With the decisive battle only a few days off, it was engaged in gathering all available intelligence regarding enemy activity.· Unlike old-fashioned narrative history, art has no decisive battles, no international treaties, and no changes of government.
· First, Engler comes from a decisive battleground of the 1996 election, the industrial Midwest.
· This was especially true as regards the period of contraction or depression, and the Great Depression dealt a decisive blow.
· President Bill Clinton will represent a decisive break from 12 years of Republican Party rule.
· Increasingly officials helped to make policy, sometimes with decisive effect.· Volley guns need never fire a shot to have a decisive effect on the game.· And last night he eluded his two markers to decisive effect although they shadowed him well for much of the match.
· Now it might be argued that ontologically the decisive factor is that on opening his eyes he found again two distinct individuals.· Yet extending family is such a decisive factor in the success of working parents, they really can not afford their reluctance.· The decisive factor in many of these wrangles may be the judiciary.· In the future, aircraft will be the decisive factor.· However well you try to equip yourself, qualifications are unlikely to be the decisive factor.· Ultimately, though, human beings are the decisive factor.· The death of his wife in 1849 was probably a decisive factor in Hill's decision to quit.· Gradually it emerged that his concern for his country was the decisive factor in his changed attitude.
· Miller's third and decisive goal came from a McAlonen free-kick which found Simon White in position to score.· The decisive goal in the dying seconds of the first half was a beauty.· Celtic deserved their win, achieved through decisive goals from the Nicholas-Creaney partnership.· The decisive goal came after 57 minutes when Holdsworth's centre was missed by Mimms who was under pressure from Nogan.· He supplied the cross for Scott's decisive goal.
· The method used can have a decisive influence on the ranking of the proposals.· In numerous races, evangelical voters were of decisive influence in deciding the outcome.· Consequently, developments in the international financial structure have had a decisive influence on how wealth-creating activities are divided among nations.· Moreover, it was an event that had a decisive influence on the way macro-policy evolved.· Control is widely defined as the ability to exercise a decisive influence over a company by any means.· Thus, they have a decisive influence over the results in most of the elections.
· Would-be lovers belch or hiccup at decisive moments.· It was a decisive moment in his career.· For St Francis there were a number of decisive moments, such as when he saw the leper.· But group mind seems to be a liability in the decisive moments of touchdown, where there is no room for averages.· And so the experienced surgeon is able to apply his real concentration at the decisive moment.· What he is doing is laying the groundwork for the decisive moment and preparing his getaway.
· We have played a decisive part in the development of the Community over the past decade.· On the whole, though, the cases in which covert taping of conversations plays a decisive part are few.· This onslaught won financial concessions but not the decisive part in the colonization of New Zealand which the company sought.· Lugh was going to be playing a decisive part in this victory.
· If anything, Karpov had the better of these three draws, but at least decisive results were somehow once again in the air.
· The Women's Cooperative Guild played a decisive role in helping to secure for Labour the newly-enfranchised female vote.· These organizations played a decisive role in forging patient links with the outside world.· The arrangement of the oceans in relation to the continents plays a decisive role in creating and sustaining life on Earth.· Interest rate levels also can play a decisive role in determining currency values.· Nothing was resolved and Athelstan felt he had failed to take a decisive role.· He could and did play a decisive role.· So accumulation played the decisive role in maintaining favourable demand conditions.· In the other cases it played a facilitating rather than a decisive role.
· Taken together, these changes represented a decisive shift in favour of the secular power.· And such changes mark a decisive shift away from local democracy.· It marks a decisive shift on the part of the Sri Lankan government to sacrifice self-reliance for the possibility of increased foreign revenues.
· People who aren't impulsive think through the consequences of their actions before taking decisive steps.· The next decisive step was the discovery of the chemical nature of genes.· The move would be a decisive step towards the separation of the 999 service from routine ambulance work.· Constitutional meddling has been rejected, but his first move should be a decisive step towards fair votes.· So you must expect one last showdown that's followed by a decisive step in a new direction.
· Hugo Chavez won a decisive victory over Francisco Arias in his bid for a six-year term as Venzuela's president.· Nixon, meanwhile, spoke and acted as if the United States had won a decisive victory under his command.· As it happens the outcome, in my view, is a decisive victory for the individual organism.· William of Orange is seen to have worked the decisive victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.· He took four of six rounds and yet without ever making his supporters believe that a decisive victory was on the cards.· At last the moment to silence all the doubters with a decisive victory arrived.· He wanted forces capable of quick, decisive victories against diplomatically isolated opponents.
WORD FAMILYnoundecisionindecisionadjectivedecided ≠ undecideddecisive ≠ indecisiveadverbdecidedlydecisively ≠ indecisivelyverbdecide
1an action, event etc that is decisive has a big effect on the way that something developsdecisive factor/effect/influence etc Women can play a decisive role in the debate over cloning.decisive action/steps We will take decisive steps towards political union with Europe.2someone who is decisive is good at making decisions quickly and with confidence OPP indecisive: a decisive leader a talent for quick decisive action3definite and clear in a way that leaves no doubt OPP indecisivedecisive victory/result/defeat etc The answer was a decisive no.—decisively adverb: Yet again, we have failed to act decisively.—decisiveness noun [uncountable]: military decisiveness the speed and decisiveness of his victory