restrictive
adjective
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Restrictive covenants (that is, agreements) in real-estate deeds were once used to forbid the buyer from ever selling the property to anyone of another race. These are now illegal, though other kinds of restrictive covenants are very common; in some neighborhoods, they may even tell you what colors you can't paint your house. In grammar, a restrictive clause is one that limits the meaning of something that comes before it. In the sentence "That's the professor who I'm trying to avoid", "who I'm trying to avoid" is a restrictive clause, since it's what identifies the professor. But in the sentence "That's my History professor, who I'm trying to avoid", the same clause is nonrestrictive, since the professor has already been identified as "my History professor". There should always be a comma before a nonrestrictive clause, but not before a restrictive clause.
Examples of restrictive in a Sentence
Jenifer Calle, Glamour, 26 Sep. 2025
Discriminatory immigration laws limited Filipino population growth until 1965, when the passage of the 1965 Immigration & Naturalization Act ended restrictive national quotas for Asian immigrants, the Filipino American National Historical Society noted.
—Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 26 Sep. 2025
Mapped homes The properties that have been mapped to date in Washington County appear with detailed descriptions of the racially restrictive covenants, the addresses and the dates they were added.
—Mary Divine, Twin Cities, 25 Sep. 2025
This has created unique problems for educational IT departments juggling restrictive budgets and multiple technology vendors with children's needs.
—Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 23 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for restrictive
Cite this Entry
“Restrictive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/restrictive. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.
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restrictive
adjective
Legal Definition
restrictive
adjective
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