Descriptionist

//dəˈskɹɪpʃənəst// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Synonym of descriptivist.

    "The author of the Waverley novels is another fine example; but he clearly takes his highest rank as a descriptionist—the painter of effects and appearances rather than of facts and of causes."

  2. 2
    One who subscribes to descriptionism.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Descriptivist. not-comparable

    "In effect, they say "a plague on both your houses" to the two sides in the prescriptionist-descriptionist debate."

  2. 2
    Regarding utterances as primarily descriptive rather than as rigidly specifying a particular thing or kind of thing. not-comparable

    "The problem with the descriptionist account of date-times is that it gives the wrong truth conditions to sentences like that in CAESAR."

  3. 3
    Of or relating to descriptionism (theory of truth). not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms
descriptionisticdescriptivistdescriptivistic

Example

More examples

"The author of the Waverley novels is another fine example; but he clearly takes his highest rank as a descriptionist—the painter of effects and appearances rather than of facts and of causes."

Etymology

From description + -ist.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.