Word.ws English Dictionary

descriptivist

UK/dɪˈskɹɪptɪvɪst/

descriptivist adjective: subscribing to, or related to, descriptivism.

Adjective

descriptivist (comparative more descriptivist, superlative most descriptivist)

  1. Subscribing to, or related to, descriptivism.

Noun

descriptivist (plural descriptivists)

  1. Someone who records and describes actual rules regarding language usage, or who believes that linguistic norms should be defined by usage rather than theory.

Synonyms of descriptivist

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of descriptivist

Forms of descriptivist

Adjective
comparativemore descriptivist
superlativemost descriptivist
Noun
pluraldescriptivists

Origin of descriptivist

From descriptive + -ist.

Words formed from descriptivist

Questions about descriptivist

What does descriptivist mean?
Descriptivist means subscribing to, or related to, descriptivism.
What part of speech is descriptivist?
Descriptivist can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce descriptivist?
Descriptivist is pronounced /dɪˈskɹɪptɪvɪst/ (UK).

Words near descriptivist in the dictionary

  1. descriptively
  2. descriptiveness
  3. descriptives
  4. descriptivism
  5. descriptivisms
  6. descriptivist
  7. descriptivistic
  8. descriptivists
  9. descriptivity
  10. descriptor
  11. descriptors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: descriptivist (page history and authors). 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.

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