description

description

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈskɹɪpʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

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.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• audio description
• beggar description
• charge description master
• descriptional
• descriptionally
• descriptionism
• descriptionist
• descriptionistic
• descriptionless
• description logic
• description word
• hardware description language
• job description
• metadescription
• misdescription
• nondescription
• nondescriptional
• of any description
• of some description
• redescription
• video description

 

Related terms

• describe
• descriptive

Translations

account in words

Albanian: përshkrim (sq) m Arabic: وَصْف‎ m (waṣf), تَوْصِيف‎ m (tawṣīf), تَصْوِير‎ m (taṣwīr), تَفْصِيل‎ m (tafṣīl) Armenian: նկարագրություն (hy) (nkaragrutʿyun) Azerbaijani: təsvir (az) Belarusian: апіса́нне n (apisánnje) Bengali: বয়ান (bn) (bôyan) Bulgarian: описа́ние (bg) n (opisánie) Burmese: ဖေါ်ပြချက် (hpau-pra.hkyak) Catalan: descripció (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 描寫／描写 (zh) (miáoxiě), 描述 (zh) (miáoshù) Czech: popis (cs) m Danish: beskrivelse (da) c Dutch: beschrijving (nl) f, descriptie (nl) f Esperanto: priskribo Estonian: kirjeldus Finnish: kuvaus (fi), selitys (fi) French: description (fr) f Galician: descrición (gl) f Georgian: აღწერა (ka) (aɣc̣era) German: Beschreibung (de) f, Deskription (de) f Greek: περιγραφή (el) f (perigrafí) Ancient: ἔκφρασις f (ékphrasis), περιήγησις f (periḗgēsis) Hebrew: תיאור \\ תֵּאוּר‎ (he) m (te'ur) Hindi: विवरण (hi) m (vivraṇ), वर्णन (hi) m (varṇan), बयान (hi) m (bayān) Hungarian: leírás (hu) Icelandic: lýsing (is) f Ido: deskripto (io) Indonesian: deskripsi (id) Italian: descrizione (it) f Japanese: 記述 (ja) (きじゅつ, kijutsu), 説明 (ja) (せつめい, setsumei), 描写 (ja) (びょうしゃ, byōsha) Kazakh: баяндау (baändau), сипаттау (sipattau) Khmer: ពិពណ៌នា (km) (pipɔəniə), ពណ៌នា (km) (pɔənaʼniə), ព្យាករណ៍ (km) (pyiəkɑɑ) Korean: 묘사(描寫) (ko) (myosa), 기술(記述) (ko) (gisul), 서술(敍述) (ko) (seosul), 설명(說明) (ko) (seolmyeong) Kyrgyz: баяндоо (ky) (bayandoo), сыпаттоо (sıpattoo) Ladino: deskripsion f Lao: ການພັນລະນາ (kān phan la nā) Latin: dēscrīptiō (la) f Latvian: apraksts m, attēlojums m Ligurian: descriçion Lithuanian: aprašymas (lt) m Macedonian: опис m (opis) Maori: whakaahuatanga Meänkieli: kuvvailu Mongolian: Cyrillic: тодорхойлолт (mn) (todorxojlolt), дүрслэл (mn) (dürslel), тайлбар (mn) (tajlbar) Moroccan Amazigh: ⴰⴳⵍⴰⵎ m (aglam) Norwegian: Bokmål: beskrivelse (no) m Occitan: descripcion (oc) Oromo: ibsa Pashto: توصيف‎ (ps) m (tawsīf), تصوير‎ (ps) m (taswīr) Persian: توصیف‎ (fa) (towsif), وصف‎ (fa) (vasf), تصویر‎ (fa) (tasvir) Polish: opis (pl) m Portuguese: descrição (pt) f Romanian: descripție (ro), descriere (ro) Russian: описа́ние (ru) n (opisánije) Scots: descreeption Scottish Gaelic: tuairisgeul m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: о̀пис m Roman: òpis (sh) m Slovak: popis m Slovene: opis (sl) m Spanish: descripción (es) f Swedish: beskrivning (sv) c Tagalog: paglalarawan, deskripsyon (tl) Tajik: тавсиф (tavsif), тасвир (tg) (tasvir), васф (vasf) Tatar: тасвир (tt) (taswir), тасвирлама (tt) (taswirlama) Telugu: వర్ణన (te) (varṇana) Thai: การพรรณนา (th) (gaan-pan-ná-naa) Tibetan: please add this translation if you can Turkish: tanım (tr), tavsif (tr) Turkmen: beýan (tk) Ukrainian: о́пис m (ópys) Urdu: بَیان‎ m (bayān) Uyghur: تەسۋىر‎ (teswir) Uzbek: tasvir (uz), tavsif (uz), vasf (uz) Vietnamese: sự miêu tả (vi), sự mô tả (vi) Yiddish: באַשרײַבונג‎ f (bashraybung)

act of describing

Estonian: kirjeldamine Finnish: kuvailu (fi), kuvaaminen (fi) Lithuanian: apibūdinimas m Russian: описа́ние (ru) n (opisánije) Tatar: тасвирлау (taswirlau)

set of characteristics

Bulgarian: описа́ние (bg) n (opisánie) Finnish: määritelmä (fi) French: signalement (fr) Hungarian: leírás (hu), személyleírás (hu) Irish: comharthaí m pl, comharthaí aithne m pl, comharthaí sóirt m pl Russian: описа́ние (ru) n (opisánije) Scottish Gaelic: tuairisgeul m Spanish: señalamiento Swedish: signalement (sv) Turkish: vasif Yiddish: באַשרײַבונג‎ f (bashraybung)

taxonomy: scientific documentation of a taxon

Finnish: kuvaus (fi) Japanese: 記載 (ja) (きさい, kisai)

linguistics: act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage

Finnish: kuvailu (fi)

linguistics: descriptive linguistic survey

Finnish: kuvaileva tutkimus

See also

• prescription
• descriptivism

Further reading

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

See also

• synopsis
• interpretation

Anagrams

• discerption, predictions

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēscriptiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛs.kʁip.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: descriptions

Noun

description f (plural descriptions)

1. description

Related terms

• décrire
• descriptif

Further reading

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

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Old French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dēscriptiō.

Noun

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

1. description

Related terms

• descrivre