descriptivede‧scrip‧tive /dɪˈskrɪptɪv/ ●○○ adjective 
Examples
the descriptive passages in the novel2 technical describing how the words of a language are actually used, rather than saying how they ought to be used OPP prescriptive—descriptively adverb
ExamplesEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- A descriptive listing of 116 bed-and-breakfast inns is available.
- The book contains many fine descriptive passages about everyday life in China.
- When you write your paragraph, include as many descriptive details as possible.
- Applications engineering is a title which is descriptive.
- Because they describe an objective reality, descriptive core beliefs are simply valid or invalid.
- Much of our existing knowledge has been gathered from descriptive studies which lack controls and proper sampling procedures.
- The descriptive design is used for community surveys such as need assessment projects.
- The board had decided on another candidate, an orthodox pathologist with predominantly clinical and descriptive interests and not an experimentalist.
- These are examples of the many questions about politics that require explanation, not mere descriptive facts.
Longman Language Activatora written or spoken description► description
Collocations what you say or write when you are describing a person, place, or thing: description of: · Write a description of someone you know well.give somebody a description: · Tom gave the police a description of his car.a full/detailed description (=containing all the important details): · You can read a detailed description of the products on their Web site.
► report a description of a situation or event, based on a study of the facts, that provides people with information about it and also tries to explain it: · The report is based on visits to schools in five cities.report on: · Amnesty International released another report on the government's use of torture.newspaper/news/television report: · News reports suggest that over 300 people may have died.
► account a written or spoken description of something that happened: account of: · The newspaper printed a detailed account of the trial.give an account: · In the magazine, Cook gives a colorful account of his first meeting with Hamilton.
► commentary a spoken description of an event such as a race or sports event which is given while it is happening, especially on the radio or television: · Joe Garagiola will provide the commentary tonight on Channel 7.commentary on: · Now let's go over to our London studio for commentary on the wrestling.running commentary (=a continuous commentary all the time that something is happening): · Sarah was looking out the window and giving us a running commentary on what was happening in the street.
► portrayal a description of a person, thing, place etc that deliberately chooses particular details about them in order to make people form a particular opinion about them, especially a bad opinion: portrayal of: · Many have criticized Hollywood for its unrealistic portrayal of life in America.portrayal of somebody/something as: · I cannot accept the article's portrayal of these men as bloodthirsty terrorists.
► descriptive a piece of writing that is descriptive contains a lot of details describing what someone or something is like, rather than telling a story or describing events: · The book contains many fine descriptive passages about everyday life in China.· When you write your paragraph, include as many descriptive details as possible.
► profile a short description of someone's life, work, and character, especially of someone famous, that is written in a newspaper, shown on television etc: profile of: · Every week the magazine presents the profile of a well-known sports personality.· I heard a fascinating profile of Madeleine Albright on the radio yesterday.
WORD SETS► Linguisticsacronym, nounadage, nounaffricate, nounagglutination, nounalphanumeric, adjectiveanglophone, nounantecedent, nounantonym, nounaphorism, nounarchaism, nounargot, nounaspirate, verbaspirate, nounaspiration, nounassonance, nounbaby talk, nounback, adjectiveback formation, nounbilabial, nounbody language, nouncant, nouncliché, nouncognate, adjectivecognate, nouncollocate, verbcollocation, nouncolloquial, adjectivecombining form, nouncompound, nounconcordance, nounconnotation, nounconsonant, nouncontext, nouncontraction, nouncorpus, noundative, noundeclarative, adjectivedecline, verbdecode, verbdescriptive, adjectivediction, noundiminutive, noundiminutive suffix, noundiphthong, nounelide, verbellipsis, nounelocution, nounemphasis, nounencode, verbenunciate, verb-ese, suffixetymology, nouneuphemism, nouneuphemistic, adjectiveexpression, nounfigurative, adjectivefirst language, nounformal, adjectivefricative, noungender, nounglide, nounglottal stop, nounhard, adjectivehieroglyphics, nounhigh-level, adjectivehomograph, nounhomonym, nounhomophone, nounhyperbole, nounideogram, nounidiolect, nounidiom, nounidiomatic, adjectiveinflection, nounintonation, nounIPA, nounironic, adjectivejargon, nounlabial, nounlanguage, nounlegalese, nounlexical, adjectivelexicography, nounlexicon, nounlexis, nounlingua franca, nounlinguist, nounlinguistic, adjectivelinguistics, nounlip-read, verbloanword, nounlocution, nounlong, adjectivemaxim, nounmetalanguage, nounmispronounce, verbmnemonic, nounmonosyllabic, adjectivemonosyllable, nounmorpheme, nounmorphology, nounnasal, adjectivenasal, nounneologism, nounneutral, adjectivenonce, adjectivenon-standard, adjectivenonverbal, adjectiveofficialese, nounonomatopoeia, nounopen vowel, nounorientalist, nounoxymoron, nounpalindrome, nounparagraph, nounparaphrase, verbparaphrase, nounphilology, nounphoneme, nounphonemics, nounphonetic, adjectivephonetics, nounphonic, adjectivephonology, nounphrasal, adjectivephraseology, nounpidgin, nounplosive, nounpolyglot, adjectivepolysemous, adjectivepolysyllabic, adjectiveportmanteau word, nounpragmatics, nounpreliterate, adjectivepre-verbal, adjectiveprimary stress, nounpronounce, verbpronounceable, adjectivepronunciation, nounproverb, nounpsychobabble, nounReceived Pronunciation, nounrecitation, nounregister, nounretroflex, adjectiveRP, nounschwa, nounsecondary stress, nounsecond language, nounsemantic, adjectivesemantics, nounsemiotics, nounsemi-vowel, nounshort, adjectivesibilant, adjectivesibilant, nounsic, adverbsilent, adjectivesimile, nounslang, nounsound, verbspeech, nounspeech therapy, nounspell, verbspelling, nounspoonerism, nounstandard, adjectivestem, nounstop, nounstress, nounstress, verbstressed, adjectivestress mark, nounstructuralism, nounstylistics, nounsuperlative, nounsyllabic, adjectivesyllable, nounsynonym, nounsynonymous, adjectivetechnical, adjectiveterminology, nounthesaurus, nountone, nountone language, nountoneless, adjectivetongue, nountranscribe, verbtranscription, nountrope, noununpronounceable, adjectiveunstressed, adjectiveunvoiced, adjectiveusage, nounuse, verbuse, nounvelar, adjectivevocabulary, nounvoiceless, adjectivevowel, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► as
Word family· The title should be as descriptive as possible, and can be up to 60 printing characters long, including spaces.· It should be as descriptive as the number of characters used will allow.
► more· It's a useful addition to make to your command centre as the text links will be more descriptive than icons.
► purely· Have been growing less and less interested in titles that are other than purely descriptive.· This last category Gumperz describes as somewhat more difficult to specify in purely descriptive terms.· This fact alone suggests that a purely descriptive approach to first degree courses is likely to be unproductive or excruciatingly boring.· These terms are purely descriptive, but they are necessary to cope with observed phenomena, especially in psychopathology.
NOUN► account· In Britain two examples of cohort studies provide descriptive accounts of patterns of infant care in urban communities.· It pays most attention to interviews, descriptive accounts, biographies, and autobiographies.· But it also involves a descriptive account of human nature and institutions.
► name· The high oil content lending black oats their descriptive name made them a traditional feed for horses.
► passage· Little other than isolated records can be established from most of these, although there are some fine descriptive passages.
► phrase· Fiona would never jock him off, in racing's descriptive phrase.· Click the mouse on an icon, and a descriptive phrase appears in a box next to the icons.· What is more, proper names are normally introduced into discourse by means of descriptive phrases.· In particular, contingent entities can not be individuated in an absolute sense by any kind of descriptive phrase.
WORD FAMILYadjectivedescribable ≠ indescribablenondescriptdescriptivenoundescriptionverbdescribeadverbdescriptively
1giving a description of something: the descriptive passages in the novel2 technical describing how the words of a language are actually used, rather than saying how they ought to be used OPP prescriptive—descriptively adverb