All 18 Uses of

relative
in
The Tipping Point

The most famous flu epidemic of all — the pandemic of 1918 — was first spotted in the spring of that year and was, relatively speaking, quite tame.†
Chpt 1

relatively = in comparison to something else

The Stickiness Factor says that there are specific ways of making a contagious message memorable; there are relatively simple changes in the presentation and structuring of information that can make a big difference in how much of an impact it makes.†
Chpt 1

Some send their letters to relatives.†
Chpt 2 *

relatives = people related by blood or marriage

Then I gave the test to a relatively random sample of my friends and acquaintances, mostly journalists and professionals in their late twenties and thirties.†
Chpt 2

relatively = in comparison to something else

Those epidemics involved relatively straightforward and simple things — a product and a message.†
Chpt 4

In a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, and aggressive panhandling, they write, are all the equivalent of broken windows, invitations to more serious crimes: Muggers and robbers, whether opportunistic or professional, believe they reduce their chances of being caught or even identified if they operate on streets where potential victims are already intimidated by prevailing conditions.†
Chpt 4

We stepped up enforcement of the laws against public drunkenness and public urination and arrested repeat violators, including those who threw empty bottles on the street or were involved in even relatively minor damage to property.... If you peed in the street, you were going to jail.†
Chpt 4

There is a relatively new literature that talks about genes that may or may not dispose certain individuals to crime.†
Chpt 4 *

Once you understand that context matters, however, that specific and relatively small elements in the environment can serve as Tipping Points, that defeatism is turned upside down.†
Chpt 4

Man evolved to feel strongly about few people, short distances, and relatively brief intervals of time; and these are still the dimensions of life that are important to him.†
Chpt 5

Even a relatively small increase in the size of a group, in other words, creates a significant additional social and intellectual burden.†
Chpt 5

We have seen, in this book, how a number of relatively minor changes in our external environment can have a dramatic effect on how we behave and who we are.†
Chpt 5

"One theory," Krogh writes, "has it that their lack of deference and their surfeit of defiance combine to make them relatively indifferent to what people think of them."†
Chpt 7

Dunbar has actually developed an equation, which works for most primates, in which he plugs in what he calls the neocortex ratio of a particular species — the size of the neocortex relative to the size of the brain — and the equation spits out the expected maximum group size of the animal.†
Chpt 5

In 1945, in rural Maine, at a time when virtually every family had a son or relative involved in the war effort, the only way to make sense of a story like that was to fit it into the context of the war.†
Chpt 6

Definitions:

(1) (relative as in: the relative importance)
compared with something else (not an absolute value or not complete)
(2) (relative as in: they are relatives)
connected
in various senses, including:
- a person related by blood or marriage -- as in "The hospital won't let me visit her because I'm not a relative."
- a plant or animal related by origin or grouping -- "The closest relative of the dog is the gray wolf."
(3) (relative as in: questions relative to the topic)
related to
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

More specialized and less common senses of the word are found in philosophy, grammar, and music. Consult a comprehensive dictionary if you wish to see those. All senses have to do with relationships.