Origin: Latin suffix -ive
Defective has 5 different meanings across 1 category:
A person or thing considered to be defective.
"The new employee was found defective because he lacked the required safety certification."
In plain English: A defective person is someone who has been born with physical or mental problems that make them different from other people.
"The defective in that factory is too young to work with heavy machinery alone."
markedly subnormal in structure or function or intelligence or behavior
"defective speech"
Having one or more defects.
"The newly assembled smartphone was defective because its screen flickered and the battery drained too quickly."
In plain English: Defective means something is broken, not working right, or has been made poorly so it doesn't function as intended.
"The defective phone stopped working after just two days."
Usage: Use the adjective form of defective when describing an object that has flaws preventing it from working properly, rather than using it as a noun in modern English. This term is often confused with "deficient," but while something deficient lacks necessary parts, a defective item specifically contains errors or malfunctions.
The word entered English via the Old French term defectif, which itself came from the Late Latin dēfectīvus. It originally described something that was lacking or imperfect in its nature.