— facultatively , adv.
/fak"euhl tay'tiv/ , adj.
1. conferring a faculty, privilege, permission, or the power of doing or not doing something: a facultative enactment.
2. left to one's option or choice; optional: The last questions in the examination were facultative.
3. that may or may not take place; that may or may not assume a specified character.
4. Biol. having the capacity to live under more than one specific set of environmental conditions, as a plant that can lead either a parasitic or a nonparasitic life or a bacterium that can live with or without air (opposed to obligate ).
5. of or pertaining to the faculties.
[ 1810-20; facultativus. See FACULTY, -IVE ]