description
Americannoun
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a statement or account that describes; representation in words
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the act, process, or technique of describing
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sort, kind, or variety
reptiles of every description
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geometry the act of drawing a line or figure, such as an arc
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philosophy a noun phrase containing a predicate that may replace a name as the subject of a sentence
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of description
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English descripcioun, from Latin dēscrīptiōn-, stem of dēscrīptiō, from dēscrīpt(us) “described” (past participle of dēscrībere “to copy, draw, transcribe”; see describe) + -iō -ion
Explanation
A description puts something in words, like a portrait puts a person in paint. The lawnmower you came home with did not quite fit the description of the dishwasher you went shopping for. The root for description is the Latin word descriptio, meaning “to write down.” The “script” in description tells you that a good description makes what it describes come to life, like a script for a movie. Your description of that fudge almond swirl ice cream was so good I could taste it! Unfortunately, I'm allergic to nuts.
Vocabulary lists containing description
PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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The SAT: Language of the Test, List 4
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The Language of Standardized Tests, List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Officers found a 44-year-old man matching the suspect's description nearby and arrested him.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
But the man’s family and speakers at the vigil have said that description of events was unlikely, both because of Salgado Araujo’s nature and because they did not trust the agency’s recounting.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
The minutes were shorter but not as terse as some economists feared, though some of the description of the discussions seemed truncated.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
This should not be read as a mechanical description of every individual encounter.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
Books vary widely on their inclusion of cultural information, but some type of description adds tremendously to the value of the book and to the understanding required to evaluate and learn the material.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
The work connects two seemingly opposite descriptions of a single impurity moving through or remaining nearly motionless within a large collection of fermions, a system known as a Fermi sea.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Job descriptions often make qualifications or requirements seem more rigid than they actually are, says Henna Pryor, a workplace-performance expert who worked as a recruiter for almost a decade.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
But, along with graphic descriptions of Fremlin’s predatory behavior, she explores how Munro, a frequent New Yorker contributor, mined both her own difficult childhood and her daughter’s ordeals in her fiction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
And in a statement, a spokesperson wrote, “Science cannot assess authorship questions based on third-party descriptions of contributions.”
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026
She mirrored his fears with descriptions of contingency arrangements at the hospital—more beds, special courses, emergency drills.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
