In functional programming, an Applicative is a type class that allows for function application within a context, such as a Maybe type or a List. It extends the capabilities of Functor by enabling the application of functions that are also wrapped in a context, allowing for more complex operations while maintaining the structure of the data. Applicatives provide two main operations: pure, which lifts a value into the applicative context, and apply, which applies a wrapped function to a wrapped value. This makes it easier to work with computations that may involve effects, such as error handling or asynchronous operations.