descriptive

From Latin dēscriptīvus (“containing a full description”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈskɹɪptɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

descriptive (comparative more descriptive, superlative most descriptive)

1. Of, relating to, or providing a description.
2. (grammar) Of an adjective, stating an attribute of the associated noun (as heavy in the heavy dictionary).
3. (linguistics) Describing the structure, grammar, vocabulary and actual use of a language.
4. (sciences, philosophy) Describing and seeking to classify, as opposed to normative or prescriptive.
   • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 13 February 2012, page 162:

     He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.

• (antonym(s) of “science”): prescriptive, normative, non-descriptive

• self-descriptive

descriptive (plural descriptives)

1. (grammar) An adjective (or other descriptive word)

• auctorial descriptive

• Description on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Linguistic prescription on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• discerptive, predictives

descriptive

1. feminine singular of descriptif