What does description mean?

Definitions for description
dɪˈskrɪp ʃənde·scrip·tion

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word description.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. description, verbal descriptionnoun

    a statement that represents something in words

  2. descriptionnoun

    the act of describing something

  3. descriptionnoun

    sort or variety

    "every description of book was there"

Wiktionary

  1. descriptionnoun

    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. descriptionnoun

    The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.

  3. descriptionnoun

    A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.

  4. descriptionnoun

    A scientific documentation of a specimen intended to reveal a new species by technically explaining its characteristics and particularly how it differs from other species.

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

  5. Etymology: From descriptio.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Descriptionnoun

    Etymology: descriptio, Latin.

    A poet must refuse all tedious and unnecessary descriptions: a robe which is too heavy, is less an ornament than a burthen. John Dryden, Dufresnoy, Preface.

    Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng,
    I look for streams immortaliz’d in song,
    That lost in silence and oblivion lie,
    Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry,
    That run for ever by the muse’s skill,
    And in the smooth description murmur still. Addison.

    This sort of definition, which is made up of a mere collection of the most remarkable parts or properties, is called an imperfect definition, or a description; whereas the definition is called perfect when it is composed of the essential difference, added to general nature or genus. Isaac Watts, Logick.

    I’ll pay six thousand, and deface the bond,
    Before a friend of this description
    Shall lose a hair. William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice.

Wikipedia

  1. Description

    Description is the pattern of narrative development that aims to make vivid a place, object, character, or group. Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as modes of discourse), along with exposition, argumentation, and narration. In practice it would be difficult to write literature that drew on just one of the four basic modes.

ChatGPT

  1. description

    A description is a detailed account or statement that provides information about the characteristics, qualities, or features of a person, object, place, situation, or concept. It aims to create a vivid picture or clear understanding in someone's mind through the use of sensory details, comparisons, or other explanatory information.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Descriptionnoun

    the act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs

  2. Descriptionnoun

    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

  3. Descriptionnoun

    a class to which a certain representation is applicable; kind; sort

Wikidata

  1. Description

    Description is one of four rhetorical modes, along with exposition, argumentation, and narration. Each of the rhetorical modes is present in a variety of forms and each has its own purpose and conventions. The act of description may be related to that of definition. Description is also the fiction-writing mode for transmitting a mental image of the particulars of a story.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Description

    de-skrip′shun, n. act of describing: an account of anything in words: definition: sort, class, or kind.—adj. Descrip′tive, containing description.—adv. Descrip′tively.—n. Descrip′tiveness.

Editors Contribution

  1. description

    To describe using words.

    The description of the holiday resort was so accurate you could imagine you were there.


    Submitted by MaryC on February 16, 2020  

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'description' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2035

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'description' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2807

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'description' in Nouns Frequency: #708

Anagrams for description »

  1. discerption

  2. predictions

How to pronounce description?

How to say description in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of description in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of description in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of description in a Sentence

  1. Brian Wolfer:

    There is a very good chance that the bear that was killed is the one that injured the man, but this area is also good bear habitat and home to many bears, while we are not currently looking for another bear, the area will remain closed and trail cameras will be set up to see if there are other bears matching the description in the area.

  2. Lorenzo Lynch:

    I think that's a poetic description of what has happened and poetry, like most language, is limited but it does have wings ... to carry a point, Giuliani pushes for Lynch confirmation 'A moderately tough confirmation' Senate Republicans adamantly deny the delay in scheduling a vote on Lynch's nomination is because she is African-American. Many point out that Lynch, if confirmed, would be replacing the country's first African-American attorney general who was confirmed by an overwhelming margin. Instead, Republicans and Democrats say the delay is part of an ongoing partisan battle. For some, it's part of a fight over a human trafficking bill that has stalled in the Senate. For others, the delay is retaliation for President Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration. On the eve of Holder's announcement of his plans to leave the Department of Justice, the political number crunchers at FiveThrirtyEight.com predicted whoever the President nominated would.

  3. Nick Pope:

    Im more interested in the fact that this first photo has been leaked, and in the related leaking of information about the Pentagons Unidentified Aerial Task Force, where serving intelligence community personnel have shared insights from two intelligence positionreports, with my own defense background in this subject, three things stand out. Firstly, the description by one insider of the reports as shocking a wordthat begs the question what about UAP do these people find shocking. Secondly, the fact that the intelligence reports seem to have been given a surprisingly wide distribution in various intelligence agencies, and thirdly, the fact that the extraterrestrial hypothesis seems genuinely not to have been taken off the table.

  4. John Kirby:

    We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now, we don’t know who owns it – whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned, we just don’t know.

  5. Albert Einstein:

    The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description

Popularity rank by frequency of use

description#1#379#10000

Translations for description

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"description." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/description>.

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