descriptive
/dɪˈskɹɪptɪv/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/dɪˈskɹɪptɪv/
descriptive adjective: of, relating to, or providing a description.
Adjective
descriptive (comparative more descriptive, superlative most descriptive)
- Of, relating to, or providing a description.
- Of an adjective, stating an attribute of the associated noun (as heavy in the heavy dictionary).
- Describing the structure, grammar, vocabulary and actual use of a language.
- 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.2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2012, page 162
- Antonyms:
- normative, non-descriptive, prescriptive
Noun
descriptive (plural descriptives)
descriptive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
descriptive in Hindi
- वर्णनात्मक, विवरणात्मक
descriptive in Tamil
- விவரிக்கும், விரிவான, விளக்கமான, விரிவான முறை, விளக்கமான முறை, விவரித்துரைத்தல்
descriptive in Marathi
- वर्णनात्मक, वर्णनशील
descriptive in Urdu
- وضاحتی
More languagesFewer languages
- descriptive in Bengali
- বর্ণনামূলক
- descriptive in Malayalam
- വർണ്ണിക്കുന്ന, വിവരിക്കുന്ന
- descriptive in Kannada
- ಕೊಗೆಯುವ
- descriptive in Punjabi
- ਵਰਣਨਯੋਗ, ਵਰਣਨਸ਼ੀਲ, ਵਰਣਨਾਤਮਕ
- descriptive in Gujarati
- વર્ણનાત્મક
- descriptive in Odia
- ବର୍ଣ୍ଣନାତ୍ମକ, ବର୍ଣ୍ଣନାାତ୍ମକ
- descriptive in Nepali
- वर्णनात्मक, विवरणात्मक
- descriptive in Indonesian
- deskriptif
Examples of descriptive in a sentence
- Methodologically, Wiktionary represents an implementation of the descriptive approach to linguistics and specifically to grammar.
- "I pronounce you man and wife" is a descriptive statement, but also has illocutionary force.
- In descriptive fact, word senses are established by usage.
Antonyms of descriptive
Forms of descriptive
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more descriptive |
| superlative | most descriptive |
| Noun | |
| plural | descriptives |
Origin of descriptive
From Latin dēscriptīvus (“containing a full description”).
Words formed from descriptive
- auctorial descriptive
- autodescriptive
- descriptive adjective
- descriptive ethics
- descriptive geometry
- descriptively
- descriptiveness
- descriptive statistics
- descriptivism
- descriptivist
- descriptivistic
- descriptivity
- indescriptive
- metadescriptive
- misdescriptive
- non-descriptive
- overdescriptive
- self-descriptive
- undescriptive
Phrases with descriptive
Questions about descriptive
- What does descriptive mean?
- Descriptive means of, relating to, or providing a description.
- What is descriptive in Hindi?
- Descriptive in Hindi is वर्णनात्मक, विवरणात्मक. See Descriptive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is descriptive?
- Descriptive can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce descriptive?
- Descriptive is pronounced /dɪˈskɹɪptɪv/ (UK).
Words near descriptive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: descriptive (page history and authors); descriptive (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); descriptive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); descriptive (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); descriptive (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); descriptive (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); descriptive (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); descriptive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); descriptive (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); descriptive (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); descriptive (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); descriptive (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-descriptive.wav.
Cite this entry: “descriptive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/descriptive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.