description
Pluraldescriptions
- 1An account or representation of something in words, setting out its essential qualities.
Like a portrait painted with words rather than paint.
The novel opens with a vivid description of the windswept coastline.
Witnesses gave detailed descriptions of the suspects to the police.
UsageUsually a description of something; you give or write one, and something amazing is beyond description.
Similaraccount, portrayal, depiction, representation, picture
- 2The combination of features by which a person or thing can be identified.
Like a fingerprint made of traits rather than ridges.
Customs officers flagged a bag that matched the description in the alert.
The stray cat fit the description posted on the bulletin board.
UsageUsually with match or fit: a man who matches the description, a car that fits the description of the stolen one.
Similarprofile
- 3The act or process of describing something, as distinct from the account it produces: putting it into words, or marking out its shape with lines or signs.
Like the act of sketching, but done with words.
The novel has little plot, but its long passages of description bring the city to life.
Accurate description of symptoms helps doctors reach a diagnosis.
Note
Used this way it names the doing rather than the result, so accurate description of symptoms is a process, while the finished account is what that process produces.
- 4A type or variety of something, found mostly in set phrases such as of every description and of any description.
Boats of every description crowded the harbor for the festival.
The street fair drew visitors of all descriptions, from toddlers to retirees.
UsageMostly after a plural noun: of every description, of all descriptions; of any description usually comes in negatives and questions.
Less common meanings
- 5A formal scientific documentation of a taxon, written to introduce it to science.
- 6A systematic survey describing the structure and usage of a particular language or variety.
- 7The practice of recording and describing how language is actually used in a community, rather than laying down rules for correct usage.
Practice
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Origin
Latin dēscrīptiō, a noun of action from dēscrībō ('I describe'), gave Old French description, and the two together are the source of Middle English descripcioun. In English terms it is describe plus the suffix -tion.