dispositive

From Middle French dispositif and its source, Latin dispositus. Compare Piedmontese dispositiv.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈspɒzɪtɪv/

dispositive (comparative more dispositive, superlative most dispositive)

1. Intending to or resulting in or capable of disposition (disposing, disposing of, or settling a matter).

   Coordinate term: determinative

   We were unable to produce any dispositive evidence to support our case.

   • 2002, Louise Arbour (Supreme Court of Canada), “R. v. Lamy, 2002 SCC 25”, in CanLII‎^[1]:

     ...the acquittal of the respondent on the charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm is not dispositive of the question of whether he used an object "in causing... injury" so as to make that object a weapon.

   • 2025 January, Amanda Mull, “Prices will vary: Dynamic pricing will go far beyond airfares and hotels, to many customers' dismay”, in Bloomberg Businessweek, page 21:

     The problem—or one of them, anyway—is that customers hate dynamic pricing almost as much as they hate normal price increases. […] But as it stands, dynamic pricing is largely regarded as legal, as long as sellers don't use protected characteristics such as race or gender to determine what buyers will pay. The algorithmic nature of dynamic pricing also gives sellers plausible deniability; who's to say which data points were dispositive? The main risk for retailers is one of perception.

   • 2025 January 24, George F. Will, “There are ample reasons, not about his personal life, for rejecting Hegseth. Opinion”, in Washington Post‎^[2]:

     Controversies about his past loutishness should not be dispositive when deciding whether he should be confirmed. There are ample other reasons to reject his nomination.

2. (obsolete) By natural disposition, having such an inclination.
3. (Euro-English or non-native speakers' English) Being a statutory provision not mandatory to the parties, as in ius dispositivum.

   Antonym: cogent

   • 2006, prof. JUDr. Helena Barancová, DrSc., Termination of Employment Relationship: Legal Situation in the Slovak Republic‎^[3], Brussels: European Commission – Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, pages 1–2:

     The second salient feature of the new Labour Code was an increase in the proportion of dispositive provisions at the expense of cogent provisions which, as the subsequent legal development showed, was not quite adequate.

   • 2019, Jan Wouters, Cedric Ryngaert, Tom Ruys, Geert De Baere, International Law. A European perspective, Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart, →ISBN, page 62:

     The VCLT is also applicable to treaties that are the constituent instrument of an international organisation and to treaties that have been adopted within an international organisation (Art 5 VCLT). However, in this (as well as other respect(s)), the VCLT is of a dispositive nature. The rules that apply in the first place are the rules of the international organisation itself as established under its constituent instrument and internal law. Thus, when a constituent treaty of an international organisation does not contain any provisions concerning the termination of membersip, the rules of the VCLT become relevant (Art. 56 VCLT).

Although the adjectives dispositional and dispositive both express relation to a disposition, the idea of determining (governing) that disposition is usually expressed with dispositive.

dispositive (plural dispositives)

1. Alternative form of dispositif.
   • 2010, François Albéra, Maria Tortajada, Cinema Beyond Film: Media Epistemology in the Modern Era, page 35:

     Apollinaire thus used some of the characteristics of the cinematographic and phonographic dispositives and their variables related to viewing or listening apparatuses that preceded or are contemporary to the cinema.

   • 2014, Jason Thompson, The Game Culture Reader, page 69:

     The scene of jumping on an invisible bridge is then to be seen as a discourse fragment that builds a discourse strand together with other elements (e.g., in the context of other jump'n'runs) that lead into a shared discourse that itself can be integrated into an elementary discourse or a dispositive (cf. Jäger 2004, 117). In the framework of a discourse analysis, Lara Croft's death jump would not be conceived as a unique moment or narrative.

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dispositive

1. inflection of dispositiv:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

• IPA^(key): /dis.po.siˈti.ve/
• Rhymes: -ive
• Hyphenation: di‧spo‧si‧tì‧ve

dispositive

1. feminine plural of dispositivo