Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Serving to describe; characterized by description: Providing details about the characteristics, qualities, or features of something.
   • Concerned with classification or description, especially in language or science: Focusing on how things are used or observed in practice, rather than prescribing rules.

Usage

• The word descriptive is used to label language, writing, analysis, or studies that aim to depict, detail, or represent things as they are.
• It is often contrasted with prescriptive, which sets rules for how things should be.

Examples

• Adjective:
  • She wrote a highly descriptive account of her travels.
  • The witness gave a descriptive statement to the police.
  • Linguistics can be descriptive, analyzing how language is actually used.

Advanced Usage

• Descriptive statistics: A branch of statistics that summarizes and describes the features of a dataset.
  • The report used descriptive statistics like the mean and standard deviation.
• Descriptive geometry: A branch of geometry concerned with the two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional objects.
  • The engineering student excelled in descriptive geometry.

Variants and Related Words

• Describe (verb): To give an account in words of someone or something.
• Description (noun): A spoken or written account of a person, object, or event.
• Descriptively (adverb): In a descriptive manner.

Synonyms

• Illustrative: Serving as an example or explanation.
• Explanatory: Intended to explain something.
• Depictive: Serving to depict or portray.

Antonyms

• Prescriptive: Relating to the imposition or enforcement of a rule or method.
• Vague: Of uncertain, indefinite, or unclear character or meaning.

Related Phrases

• Descriptive linguistics: The objective analysis and description of how a language is spoken by its users.
  • He specialized in descriptive linguistics, documenting regional dialects.
• Descriptive writing: A style of writing that paints a picture with words.
  • The author's descriptive writing made the fictional city feel real.

Adjective

1. describing the structure of a language
   • descriptive grammar
2. serving to describe or inform or characterized by description
   • the descriptive variable
   • a descriptive passage