Definition

Adverb In a manner that describes or details the characteristics, qualities, or features of something. It focuses on providing an account of what something is like, rather than analyzing, judging, or prescribing.

Usage

The adverb "descriptively" modifies verbs to indicate that an action is performed in a descriptive way. It is often used in academic, linguistic, and analytical contexts.

Examples

• The author writes descriptively about the landscape, painting a vivid picture with words.
• The scientist reported the data descriptively, focusing solely on the observed phenomena without interpretation.
• To use a word descriptively is to state its common usage, not to argue for how it be used.

Advanced Usage

• Linguistics / Philosophy: Used to contrast with "prescriptively." A descriptivist approach to language records how people actually speak and write, whereas a prescriptivist approach dictates rules for "correct" usage.
  • The linguist analyzed the dialect descriptively, not prescriptively.
• Statistics: "Descriptively" can refer to descriptive statistics, which summarize and describe the features of a dataset (e.g., mean, median), as opposed to inferential statistics, which make predictions.
  • The results were presented descriptively through charts and averages.

Variants and Related Words

• Descriptive (adjective): Serving or aiming to describe. (e.g., )
• Description (noun): A spoken or written account of a person, object, or event.
• Describe (verb): To give a detailed account in words.

Synonyms

• Explanatorily
• Illustratively
• Representationally

Antonyms

• Prescriptively
• Normatively
• Judgementally

Adverb

1. by giving a description
   • these topics need to be treated not just descriptively