From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishderivativede‧riv‧a‧tive1 /dɪˈrɪvətɪv/ AWL noun [countable] 1 COME FROM/ORIGINATEsomething that has developed or been produced from something elsederivative of Heroin is a derivative of morphine.2 a type of financial investment the derivatives market
Examples from the Corpus
derivative• The BAe 1000, a derivative of the highly successful BAe 125-800, will be produced at its Chester factory.• The upcoming Voxan clearly uses a derivative of the firm's 72, double overhead cam V-twin.• The rise of credit derivatives makes it difficult to determine which banks are exposed to a particular risk.• For simplicity, we have also omitted the transfer function and its first derivative in order to amplify the weight change process.• The appendix by Bouveault considered carboxyl groups and its derivatives and substituents.• A debate is raging now in finance circles and Congress over whether the value of derivatives should be recorded in corporate books.• Perhaps it could be large if the second derivative of f is small, and viceversa.• Bear Stearns' units are the third such derivatives subsidiary.• In the derivative market, insurance companies have scaled back their purchases of Remic securities.derivative of• The drug is a derivative of Vitamin A.derivativederivative2 adjective COPYnot new or invented, but copied or taken from something else – used to show disapproval a derivative textExamples from the Corpus
derivative• This season's TV shows are all pretty dull and derivative.• But most of the content of Margery's thinking was derivative.• a derivative artistic style• This is less of a problem here, since rap is derivative by nature.• Surrealism and science fiction are derivative from the unrealities, consoling or menacing, of fairyland.• Sometimes the derivative models achieved success through a particular artist holding on to their subaltern guitar long after they'd made it.• This relatively new style of music is derivative of ragtime and blues.• No effort has been stinted in polishing this painfully derivative picture as if it were a diamond instead of strictly paste.• In this interpretation rights to the reproduction of derivative works of art rest with the printer.From Longman Business Dictionaryderivativede‧riv‧a‧tive /dɪˈrɪvətɪv/ noun [countable usually plural]FINANCE something such as an OPTION (=the right to buy or sell something at a particular price within a particular period) or a FUTURE (=a fixed price that you pay now for delivery of something in the future) based on UNDERLYING assets such as shares, bonds, and currenciesDerivatives often offer investors an easy way to make bets in markets that might be otherwise inaccessible. 