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comparative more operant, superlative most operant
That operates to produce an effect. quotations examples
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.
1955, Rex Stout, "When a Man Murders...", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, page 117
plural operants
An operative person or thing. examples
(psychology) Any of a class of behaviors that produce consequences by operating (i.e., acting) upon the environment.