descriptor
Americannoun
-
a significant word or phrase used to categorize or describe text or other material, especially when indexing or in an information retrieval system.
-
Computers. a data item that stores the attributes of some other datum.
a task descriptor.
Etymology
Origin of descriptor
First recorded in 1930–35, for an earlier sense; describe + -tor, with vowel change and devoicing by analogy with similar Latin derivatives
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.
Holzhauer chose the descriptor “game show villain” when he returned for a champions’ tournament.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
That “consume” has become the go-to descriptor for how we interact with films points to a larger denigration of the medium itself.
From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2026
Thomas Jefferson, who owned a mule named “Dr. Slop,” mimicked Sterne’s style in friendly correspondence, and was among the many readers who liked to deploy the descriptor “Shandean.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
They’re calling it “mysterious” and underscoring the name “radiation” fog, which is the scientific descriptor for such natural fog events — not an indication that they carry radioactive material.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2025
Later, octave came to mean a choice of twelve notes, not eight, and we got saddled with the wrong descriptor for ever, but I’ll explain that development when it arrives.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
