reductive

1. (Scots law, now rare) Pertaining to the reduction of a decree etc.; rescissory.archaic

2. (chemistry, metallurgy, biology, economics) That reduces a substance etc. to a more simple or basic form.Examples: "On the relative reductive powers of different classes of American coals, as demonstrated by the experiments with oxide of lead."; "It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted."

3. (now rare, historical) That can be derived from, or referred back to, something else.Examples: "But then beside the primary and direct sense of the text, the ancients commonly supposed that there was a reductive or anagogical meaning, in which it might be taken."archaichistorical

4. (now frequently derogatory) That reduces an argument, issue etc. to its most basic terms; simplistic, reductionist.