description
/dɪˈskɹɪpʃən/
description noun: a sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
Noun
description (countable and uncountable, plural descriptions)
- A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
- give a verbal description of the events
- a realistic description
- Synonyms:
- portrait
- The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.
- A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.
- The zoo had no lions, tigers, or cats of any description.
- A scientific documentation of a taxon for the purpose of introducing it to science.
- The type description of the fungus was written by a botanist.
- The act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage in a given speech community, as opposed to prescription, i.e. laying down norms of language usage.
- A descriptive linguistic survey.
description meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
description in Hindi
- account in words
- विवरण vivraṇ, वर्णन varṇan, व्याख्या vyākhyā
- act of describing
- विवरण vivraṇ, व्याख्या vyākhyā
description in Tamil
- விரித்துரைப்பு, விளக்கம், விவரிப்பு, விவரிப்பு வகை, வருணனை, வர்ணனை
description in Marathi
- description
- विवरण vivraṇ
- description, delineation, depiction
- वर्णन varṇan
description in Urdu
- account in words
- بَیان bayān, تَعْرِیف ta'rīf, وَصْف vasf
More languagesFewer languages
- description in Bengali
- বয়ান boẏan
- description in Telugu
- వర్ణన varṇana
- description in Malayalam
- വിവരണം vivaraṇaṁ, കീർത്തനം kīṟttanaṁ
- description in Kannada
- ವಿವರಣೆ, ವರ್ಣನೆ, ನಿರೂಪಣೆ, ಚಿತ್ರಣ
- description in Punjabi
- ویروا vervā
- description in Sanskrit
- उल्लेख ullekha, भाषा bhāṣā, लक्षण lakṣaṇa
- description in Assamese
- কথা kotha
- description in Nepali
- वर्णन
- description in Pashto
- توصيف tawsīf, تصوير taswīr
- description in Tagalog
- paglalarawan, deskripsyon
- description in Arabic
- وَصْف waṣf, تَوْصِيف tawṣīf, تَصْوِير taṣwīr, تَفْصِيل tafṣīl
- description in Indonesian
- deskripsi
- description in Thai
- การพรรณนา gaan-pan-ná-naa
- description in Vietnamese
- sự miêu tả, sự mô tả
- description in Myanmar
- ဖေါ်ပြချက် hpau-pra.hkyak
Examples of description in a sentence
- Descriptions are followed by a synonymy of the names that have been applied in the literature .
- Clicking the Edit button sends you to a screen where you can change the name and description.
- After reading a long, elaborate description, I was impressed but no wiser.
Synonyms of description
Forms of description
| plural | descriptions |
|---|
Origin of description
From Middle English descripcioun, from Old French description and its etymon, Latin dēscrīptiō, noun of action of dēscrībō (“to describe”). Equivalent to describe + -tion.
Words formed from description
- audiodescription
- audio description
- beggar description
- charge description master
- definite description
- definitive description
- descriptional
- descriptionally
- descriptionism
- descriptionist
- descriptionistic
- description language
- descriptionless
- description logic
- description word
- hardware description language
- ideographic description sequence
- job description
- metadescription
- misdescription
- nondescription
- nondescriptional
- of any description
- of some description
- overdescription
- redescription
- videodescription
- video description
Phrases with description
Questions about description
- What does description mean?
- Description means a sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
- What is description in Hindi?
- Description in Hindi is विवरण (vivraṇ), वर्णन (varṇan), व्याख्या (vyākhyā). See Description meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is description?
- Description is a noun.
- How do you pronounce description?
- Description is pronounced /dɪˈskɹɪpʃən/.
- What is the plural of description?
- The plural of description is descriptions.
Words near description in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: description (page history and authors); description (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); वर्णन (Marathi) (page history and authors); കീർത്തനം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); description (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ویروا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); उल्लेख (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); কথা (Assamese) (page history and authors); description (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-description.ogg.
Cite this entry: “description.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/description. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.