description

From Middle English descripcioun, from Old French description and its etymon, Latin dēscrīptiō, noun of action of dēscrībō (“I describe”).

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈskɹɪpʃən/, /dəˈskɹɪpʃən/

• 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.

   give a verbal description of the events

   a realistic description

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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “description”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• synopsis
• interpretation

• discerption, predictions

Borrowed from Latin dēscriptiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /dɛs.kʁip.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: descriptions

description f (plural descriptions)

1. description

• décrire
• descriptif

• “description”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Learned borrowing from Latin dēscriptiō.

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

1. description

• descrivre