descriptive
nounEtymology From Latin dēscriptīvus (“containing a full description”).
1
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences An adjective (or other descriptive word)
- Derived terms
- auctorial descriptive
descriptive
adjUK /dɪˈskɹɪptɪv/
Etymology From Latin dēscriptīvus (“containing a full description”).
1
Of, relating to, or providing a description.
2
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Of an adjective, stating an attribute of the associated noun (as heavy in the heavy dictionary).
3
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Describing the structure, grammar, vocabulary and actual use of a language.
4
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences Describing and seeking to classify, as opposed to normative or prescriptive.
- He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2012, page 162:
- Antonyms
- prescriptive, normative, non-descriptive
- Derived terms
- autodescriptive, descriptive adjective, descriptive ethics, descriptive geometry, descriptively, descriptiveness, descriptive statistics, descriptivism, descriptivist, descriptivistic, descriptivity, indescriptive, metadescriptive, misdescriptive, non-descriptive, overdescriptive, self-descriptive, undescriptive
- Related terms
- describe
- Hyponyms
- self-descriptive