descriptive
having the quality of describing; characterized by description: a descriptive passage in an essay.
Grammar.
(of an adjective or other modifier) expressing a quality of the word it modifies, as fresh in fresh milk.: Compare limiting (def. 2).
(of a clause) nonrestrictive.: Compare restrictive (def. 4).
noting, concerned with, or based upon the fact or experience.
characterized by or based upon the classification and description of material in a given field: descriptive botany.
Origin of descriptive
1Other words from descriptive
- de·scrip·tive·ly, adverb
- de·scrip·tive·ness, noun
- non·de·scrip·tive, adjective
- non·de·scrip·tive·ly, adverb
- non·de·scrip·tive·ness, noun
- o·ver·de·scrip·tive, adjective
- o·ver·de·scrip·tive·ly, adverb
- o·ver·de·scrip·tive·ness, noun
- self-de·scrip·tive, adjective
- un·de·scrip·tive, adjective
- un·de·scrip·tive·ly, adverb
- un·de·scrip·tive·ness, noun
Words Nearby descriptive
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use descriptive in a sentence
Like Conway and Wolpert, he put his descriptive name into the titles of his work, not just the body.
Why Mathematicians Should Stop Naming Things After Each Other - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Laura Ball | September 2, 2020 | NautilusEuclid’s Elements is full of common, descriptive names, even though he was drawing on discoveries made by many different people.
Why Mathematicians Should Stop Naming Things After Each Other - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Laura Ball | September 2, 2020 | NautilusEvery field has terms of art, but when those terms are descriptive, they are easier to memorize.
Why Mathematicians Should Stop Naming Things After Each Other - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Laura Ball | September 2, 2020 | NautilusBy now, descriptive alt texts should be best practice for all content teams.
Five SEO content types to power and grow your business through 2020 | Jim Yu | June 17, 2020 | Search Engine WatchA number of them — and I think it’s either misleading or not very descriptive — will call it the “bystander effect,” but that doesn’t tell you whether the bystander effect is to increase or decrease reporting.
5 Psychology Terms You’re Probably Misusing (Ep. 334 Rebroadcast) | Stephen J. Dubner | January 9, 2020 | Freakonomics
She avoids an exhaustively descriptive definition because she opposes condemning all novels based on the flaws of some novels.
When you mail it in or bring it back, you include descriptive words that would lead a consumer to your work.
And so we are all supposed to denote something from “working mother” as a descriptive adjective.
The name is descriptive: they are extremely intense bursts of gamma rays, the highest energy form of light.
It was descriptive, prescriptive, and exemplary in its clarity.
His Characters, in imitation of Theophrastus, is a work of established excellence, and descriptive of the manners of that age.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel MunsellAs Mrs. Armine looked at him she remembered the descriptive phrase that set him apart from all the people of Luxor.
Bella Donna | Robert HichensIn one of them, descriptive of antediluvial history, is a painting of Lamech shooting Cain with a bow and arrow.
These things are beyond my knowledge, which it would perhaps be more descriptive to call ignorance.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) | Robert Louis StevensonSave incidentally—for he did send descriptive articles to The Daily Gazette—he was not out on professional business.
Jaffery | William J. Locke
British Dictionary definitions for descriptive
/ (dɪˈskrɪptɪv) /
characterized by or containing description; serving to describe
grammar (of an adjective) serving to describe the referent of the noun modified, as for example the adjective brown as contrasted with my and former
relating to or based upon description or classification rather than explanation or prescription: descriptive linguistics
Derived forms of descriptive
- descriptively, adverb
- descriptiveness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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