proprietary

Language: en

🇬🇧 /prəˈpraɪətəri/ 🇺🇸 /prəˈpraɪəˌtɛriː/

📖 Definitions

  1. adjective
    Relating to an owner or ownership; held as property.; Owned by a particular company and protected by patent, trademark, or copyright; not publicly available or open-source.; Behaving as if one owns something; showing a sense of ownership or possessiveness.
  2. noun
    A proprietary product, especially a medicine or drug sold under a brand name.; A proprietor or owner, especially of a colony or estate granted by a sovereign.

🔗 Details

Word forms

countable Plural: proprietaries Comparative: more proprietary Superlative: most proprietary

Collocations

proprietary informationproprietary technologyproprietary softwareproprietary rightsproprietary blendproprietary name

Derivatives

proprietorproprietyproprietorshipproprietorialproprietarily

Synonyms

exclusiveprivaterestrictedpatentedclosed-source

Antonyms

publicopen-sourcegeneric

Commonly confused

propriety
EN: 'Propriety' refers to correctness of behavior or social conventions; 'proprietary' relates to ownership or exclusive control.
proprietor
EN: 'Proprietor' is the noun for an owner; 'proprietary' is the adjective describing something owned or exclusively controlled.

Spelling tips

EN: Do not confuse 'proprietary' (relating to ownership) with 'propriety' (correctness of conduct); note the '-etary' ending vs. '-ety'.

💬 Examples

  1. The company asserted its proprietary rights over the land.

  2. The software uses a proprietary algorithm that cannot be reverse-engineered.

  3. He put a proprietary arm around her shoulders, as if claiming her.

  4. The pharmacist recommended a proprietary rather than a generic version of the medication.

  5. The proprietary of the colony governed the territory under a royal charter.