objective

—objectively, adv. —objectiveness, n.

/euhb jek"tiv/, n.

1. something that one's efforts or actions are intended to attain or accomplish; purpose; goal; target: the objective of a military attack; the objective of a fund-raising drive.

2. Gram.

a. Also called objective case. (in English and some other languages) a case specialized for the use of a form as the object of a transitive verb or of a preposition, as him in The boy hit him, or me in He comes to me with his troubles.

b. a word in that case.

3. Also called object glass, object lens, objective lens. Optics. (in a telescope, microscope, camera, or other optical system) the lens or combination of lenses that first receives the rays from the object and forms the image in the focal plane of the eyepiece, as in a microscope, or on a plate or screen, as in a camera. See diag. under microscope.

adj.

4. being the object or goal of one's efforts or actions.

5. not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased: an objective opinion.

6. intent upon or dealing with things external to the mind rather than with thoughts or feelings, as a person or a book.

7. being the object of perception or thought; belonging to the object of thought rather than to the thinking subject (opposed to subjective).

8. of or pertaining to something that can be known, or to something that is an object or a part of an object; existing independent of thought or an observer as part of reality.

9. Gram.

a. pertaining to the use of a form as the object of a transitive verb or of a preposition.

b. (in English and some other languages) noting the objective case.

c. similar to such a case in meaning.

d. (in case grammar) pertaining to the semantic role of a noun phrase that denotes something undergoing a change of state or bearing a neutral relation to the verb, as the rock in The rock moved or in The child threw the rock.

10. being part of or pertaining to an object to be drawn: an objective plane.

11. Med. (of a symptom) discernible to others as well as the patient.

[1610-20; < ML objectivus, equiv. to L object(us) (see OBJECT) + -ivus -IVE]

Syn. 1. object, destination, aim. 5. impartial, fair, impersonal, disinterested.

Ant. 5. personal.

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