normatively.

By standards of what should be considered right, desirable, or appropriate.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• normatively justified
• normatively desirable

On the page

The proposal was normatively attractive but required a separate assessment of feasibility.

The argument asked what was normatively justified rather than what happened most often.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Invariable adverb; no plural or tense forms. Comparison is used only where a particular degree naturally permits it. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: inference, qualification, analysis, methodology. Disciplines: academic writing, reasoning, research. Commonness: moderately common.