Performative Meaning
/pəˈrfɔrmətɪv/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjBeing enacted as it is said.
adjInsincere, inauthentic or disingenuous; done solely or largely as a performance, to produce an impression or enhance one's reputation.
Sentence Examples
It's entirely performative, if you ask me.
Will Tebboune be forced into performative politics?
CEFR Practice Quiz
Many critics said the actor's emotional speech was ____ and lacked real feeling.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The politician's speech was largely ____, designed to appeal to voters rather than outline real policy.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English perform Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātuslbor. English -ate Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Old French -ifbor. Middle English -yf English -ive English -ative English performative From perform + -ative.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Thus in the example: 'By saying “I do” I was marrying her', the performative 'I do' is a means to the end of marriage. Here 'saying' is used in the sense in which it takes inverted commas and is using words or language, a phatic and not[…]"
— 1975 April 15, J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words: Second Edition, Harvard University Press, →ISBN:
"Although the seeming copycat nature of the plots in Port Huran and Conyers was terrifying because of their repetitive, performative, even texted nature—their seeming theatricality—more harrowing was the threat that, like theater, the performance would settle quickly into repetition compulsions in schools across the nation."
— 2002, Anthony Kubiak, Agitated States: Performance in the American Theater of Cruelty, →ISBN, page 4:
"With the danger of science becoming purely “performative” (Lyotard 1984), not seeking any pretense of “truth” but simply performing a service for those in charge while still occupying its decision-making role in a technocratically dominated political sphere […]"
— 2013, Martha McCaughey, Michael D. Ayers, Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice, page 200:
"The Harambe meme soon became the perfect parody of the sentimentality and absurd priorities of Western liberal performative politics and the online mass hysteria that often characterized it."
— 2017, Angela Nagle, Kill All Normies, Zero Books, →ISBN, Introduction:
"The reality of remote working has turned out to be different. Days have become longer and employees are demonstratively visible. Work has become more performative."
— 2022 January 8, “The rise of performative work”, in The Economist, →ISSN:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Many critics said the actor's emotional speech was ____ and lacked real feeling.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The politician's speech was largely ____, designed to appeal to voters rather than outline real policy.