1. [n]  identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others
2. [adj]  inclined to or serving for the giving of names; "the appellative faculty of children"; "the appellative function of some primitive rites"
3. [adj]  pertaining to or dealing with or used as a common noun

APPELLATIVE is a 11 letter word that starts with A.

1. \Ap*pel"la*tive\, a. [L. appellativus, fr.
   appellare: cf. F. appelatif. See {Appeal}.]
   1. Pertaining to a common name; serving as a distinctive
      denomination; denominative; naming. --Cudworth.
   2. (Gram.) Common, as opposed to {proper}; denominative of a
      class.
   

2. \Ap*pel"la*tive\, n. [L. appelativum, sc. nomen.]
   1. A common name, in distinction from a proper name. A common
      name, or appellative, stands for a whole class, genus, or
      species of beings, or for universal ideas. Thus, tree is
      the name of all plants of a particular class; plant and
      vegetable are names of things that grow out of the earth.
      A proper name, on the other hand, stands for a single
      thing; as, Rome, Washington, Lake Erie.
   2. An appellation or title; a descriptive name.
            God chosen it for one of his appellatives to be the
            Defender of them.                     --Jer. Taylor.