Adjacent Words

descriptive definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: serving to describe or inform or characterized by description; "the descriptive variable"; "a descriptive passage" [ant: undescriptive]
2: describing the structure of a language; "descriptive grammar" [ant: normative, prescriptive]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1723 1. serving to describe <a descriptive account> 2. a. referring to, constituting, or grounded in matters of observation or experience <the descriptive basis of science> b. factually grounded or informative rather than normative, prescriptive, or emotive <descriptive cultural studies> 3. of a modifier a. expressing the quality, kind, or condition of what is denoted by the modified term <hot in “hot water” is a descriptive adjective> b. nonrestrictive 4. of, relating to, or dealing with the structure of a language at a particular time usually with exclusion of historical and comparative data <descriptive linguistics> • descriptively adverb • descriptiveness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 serving or seeking to describe (a descriptive writer). 2 describing or classifying without expressing feelings or judging (a purely descriptive account). 3 Linguistics describing a language without comparing, endorsing, or condemning particular usage, vocabulary, etc. 4 Gram. (of an adjective) describing the noun, rather than its relation, position, etc., e.g. blue as distinct from few. Derivatives: descriptively adv. descriptiveness n. Etymology: LL descriptivus (as DESCRIBE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Descriptive De*scrip"tive, a. [L. descriptivus: cf. F. descriptif.] Tending to describe; having the quality of representing; containing description; as, a descriptive figure; a descriptive phrase; a descriptive narration; a story descriptive of the age. Descriptive anatomy, that part of anatomy which treats of the forms and relations of parts, but not of their textures. Descriptive geometry, that branch of geometry. which treats of the graphic solution of problems involving three dimensions, by means of projections upon auxiliary planes. --Davies & Peck (Math. Dict. ) -- De*scrip"tive*ly, adv. -- De*scrip"tive*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Descriptive language or writing indicates what someone or something is like. ...his descriptive way of writing. ADJ

Moby Thesaurus

constructional, constructive, definitional, delineative, depictive, diagnostic, exegetic, expositive, expressive, faithful, glottochronological, grammatic, graphemic, graphic, hermeneutic, interpretational, interpretive, lexicographic, lexicological, lexicostatistical, lifelike, lingual, linguistic, metalinguistic, morphological, morphophonemic, naturalistic, philological, phonemic, phonetic, phonological, psycholinguistic, realistic, representative, semantic, semeiological, structural, symptomatological, syntactic, tropological, true to life, vivid, well-drawn