descriptive

descriptive
    adj 1: serving to describe or inform or characterized by
           description; "the descriptive variable"; "a descriptive
           passage" [ant: {undescriptive}]
    2: describing the structure of a language; "descriptive grammar"
       [ant: {normative}, {prescriptive}]
    

Descriptive \De*scrip"tive\, a. [L. descriptivus: cf. F.
   descriptif.]
   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.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Descriptive anatomy}, that part of anatomy which treats of
      the forms and relations of parts, but not of their
      textures.

   {Descriptive geometry}, that branch of geometry. which treats
      of the graphic solution of problems involving three
      dimensions, by means of projections upon auxiliary planes.
      --Davies & Peck (Math. Dict. ) -- {De*scrip"tive*ly}, adv.
      -- {De*scrip"tive*ness}, n.
      [1913 Webster]
    

43 Moby Thesaurus words for "descriptive":
      constructional, constructive, definitional, delineative, depictive,
      diagnostic, exegetic, expositive, expressive, faithful,
      glottochronological, grammatic, graphemic, graphic, hermeneutic,
      interpretational, interpretive, lexicographic, lexicological,
      lexicostatistical, lifelike, lingual, linguistic, metalinguistic,
      morphological, morphophonemic, naturalistic, philological,
      phonemic, phonetic, phonological, psycholinguistic, realistic,
      representative, semantic, semeiological, structural,
      symptomatological, syntactic, tropological, true to life, vivid,
      well-drawn