Descriptive

adj, noun

adj, noun ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An adjective (or other descriptive word)
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, relating to, or providing a description.
  2. 2
    Of an adjective, stating an attribute of the associated noun (as heavy in the heavy dictionary).
  3. 3
    Describing the structure, grammar, vocabulary and actual use of a language.
  4. 4
    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."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to an approach to linguistic analysis that aims at the description of a language's forms, structures and usage wordnet
  2. 2
    serving to describe or inform or characterized by description wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
constructionalconstructivedefinitionaldelineativedepictivediagnostic

Example

More examples

"The following descriptive analysis was derived from over 1500 closely-monitored questionnaires."

Etymology

From Latin dēscriptīvus (“containing a full description”).

Related phrases

auctorial descriptivedescriptive adjectivedescriptive ethicsdescriptive geometrydescriptive statisticsnon-descriptiveself-descriptive

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