operant

See also: opérant

English

Adjective

operant (comparative more operant, superlative most operant)

1. That operates to produce an effect.
   • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     thy most operant poison

   • 1955, Rex Stout, "When a Man Murders...", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, →ISBN, page 117:

     I tell you frankly, if Paul Aubry is guilty I hope is convicted and punished; but if one of the others is guilty I hope he—or she—is punished, and if I knew anything operant to that end I certainly would not withhold it.

Derived terms

• inoperant
• operancy
• operant conditioning

Synonyms

• operative

Antonyms

• inoperant

Noun

operant (plural operants)

1. An operative person or thing.
2. (psychology) Any of a class of behaviors that produce consequences by operating (i.e., acting) upon the environment.

See also

• Skinner box

Anagrams

• Paterno, Protean, pronate, protean, tropane

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Catalan

Verb

operant

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) operant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of operō