Tending to describe; having the quality of representing; containing description; as, a descriptive figure; a descriptive phrase; a descriptive narration; a story descriptive of the age
concerned with phenomena (especially language) at a particular period without considering historical antecedents; "synchronic linguistics"; "descriptive linguistics"
{s} serving to describe, representational, illustrative; (Grammar-of an adjective) attributive, that states an attribute of the related noun; nonrestrictive, not restrictive, without limitations
describing the structure of a language; "descriptive linguistics simply describes language" serving to describe or inform or characterized by description; "the descriptive variable"; "a descriptive passage