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prescriptive

UK/pɹəˈskɹɪptɪv/US/pɹəˈskɹɪptɪv/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,814 of 15,258mostly written

Prescriptive means laying down how things ought to be done. Prescriptive rules, too prescriptive, prescriptive grammar.

It is the opposite of descriptive, and the argument between them runs through the whole study of language. Used of a policy it is usually a complaint that no room has been left for judgement.

Definitions of prescriptive

  1. 1adjectiveprescriptiveLaying down how things ought to be done.C2

    “The guidance is prescriptive down to the size of the lettering.”

prescriptive is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin praescriptivus comes from praescribere, to write beforehand, from prae plus scribere, to write.

  1. Latin

    praescriptivus — relating to a legal exception

  2. English, today

    prescriptive

Built from

  • praescript- · Latin — directed in writing

From Latin praescriptivus (“relating to a legal exception”), from praescript- (“directed in writing”), from the verb praescribere.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

prescriptive in the wild

  • In this context normative ethics is sometimes called prescriptive (as opposed to descriptive) ethics.

    Normative ethics

  • However, on certain versions of the view of moral realism, moral facts are both descriptive and prescriptive at the same time.

    Normative ethics

  • Since the mid-20th century some historically prescriptive works - even including style guides, which are prescriptive works by nature - have increasingly integrated descriptive material and approaches.

    Linguistic prescription

  • Other guides, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, are designed to impose a single style and thus remain primarily prescriptive.

    Linguistic prescription

  • Common usage may be used as one of the criteria of laying out prescriptive norms for codified standard language usage.

    Usage (language)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.