From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishRelated topics: Linguisticsdescriptivede‧scrip‧tive /dɪˈskrɪptɪv/ ●○○ adjective1DESCRIBEgiving a description of something
the descriptive passages in the novel2SL technicaldescribing how the words of a language are actually used, rather than saying how they ought to be usedOPP prescriptive —descriptively adverbExamples from the Corpusdescriptive• Applicationsengineering is a title which is descriptive.• Because they describe an objectivereality, descriptivecorebeliefs are simply valid or invalid.• The descriptive design is used for communitysurveys such as need assessmentprojects.• When you write your paragraph, include as many descriptivedetails as possible.• These are examples of the many questions about politics that require explanation, not meredescriptive facts.• The board had decided on another candidate, an orthodox pathologist with predominantly clinical and descriptive interests and not an experimentalist.• A descriptivelisting of 116 bed-and-breakfast inns is available.• Much of our existingknowledge has been gathered from descriptive studies which lack controls and proper sampling procedures.
