description

From Old French description, from Latin dēscrīptiō, noun of action of dēscrībō (“I describe”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈskɹɪpʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

description (countable and uncountable, plural descriptions)

1. A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
2. The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.
3. A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.

   The zoo had no lions, tigers, or cats of any description.

4. (taxonomy) A scientific documentation of a taxon for the purpose of introducing it to science.

   The type description of the fungus was written by a botanist.

5. (linguistics) The act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage in a given speech community, as opposed to prescription, i.e. laying down norms of language usage.
6. (linguistics) A descriptive linguistic survey.

• (characteristics): sort, kind, type, variety

• describe
• descriptive

• prescription
• descriptivism

• description in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• description in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• synopsis
• interpretation

• discerption, predictions

Borrowed from Latin dēscriptiō.

• IPA^(key): /dɛs.kʁip.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: descriptions

description f (plural descriptions)

1. description

• décrire
• descriptif

• “description” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Latin dēscriptiō.

description f (oblique plural descriptions, nominative singular description, nominative plural descriptions)

1. description

• descrivre