noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The practice of describing realistic forms, as opposed to prescribing idealistic norms, of linguistic usage. uncountable, usually
2. 2
   (linguistics) a doctrine supporting or promoting descriptive linguistics wordnet
3. 3
   (ethics) a doctrine holding that moral statements have a truth value wordnet

Antonyms

All antonyms

prescriptivism

Etymology

From descriptive + -ism. * Audio (Southern England): (file)

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