adjective · academic
qualitative
UK/ˈkwɒlɪtətɪv/US/ˈkwɑːlɪtətɪv/QUAL·i·ta·tive
relating to qualities or characteristics rather than numbers; describing types or categories
Examples
“The study used qualitative interviews to explore students’ attitudes to online learning.”
“Qualitative data gave the researchers insight into how participants felt about the policy.”
“A qualitative approach is appropriate when you want to understand meanings and experiences.”
Band 8 sentence
“The paper combined qualitative interviews with statistical analysis to provide a fuller picture of voter motivation.”
Collocations
- qualitative research
- qualitative data
- qualitative analysis
Word family
Common mistakes
quality research→qualitative research
qualitative data are numbers→qualitative data are non-numerical
Say it for a higher band
5descriptive→6non-numerical→7+qualitative
Synonyms
descriptive
Easily confused
quantitative
“The quantitative survey showed trends in behaviour, while follow-up interviews provided qualitative explanations.”
Related words
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In Sublist 7
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