| English Dictionary |
PRESCRIPTIVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Dictionary entry overview: What does prescriptive mean?
• PRESCRIPTIVE (adjective)
The adjective PRESCRIPTIVE has 1 sense:
1. pertaining to giving directives or rules
Familiarity information: PRESCRIPTIVE used as an adjective is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Pertaining to giving directives or rules
Synonyms:
normative; prescriptive
Context example:
prescriptive grammar is concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage
Domain category:
grammar (the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics))
Antonym:
descriptive (of or relating to an approach to linguistic analysis that aims at the description of a language's forms, structures and usage)
Derivation:
prescribe (issue commands or orders for)
Context examples
It had such a prescriptive, stiff-necked, long-established, solemn, elderly air.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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