Search Result for "prescriptive": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (1)

1. pertaining to giving directives or rules;
- Example: "prescriptive grammar is concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage"
[syn: prescriptive, normative]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Prescriptive \Pre*scrip"tive\, a. [L. praescriptivus of a demurrer or legal exception.] 1. (Law) Consisting in, or acquired by, immemorial or long-continued use and enjoyment; as, a prescriptive right of title; pleading the continuance and authority of long custom. [1913 Webster] The right to be drowsy in protracted toil has become prescriptive. --J. M. Mason. [1913 Webster] 2. Of or pertaining to the doctrine that acceptable grammatical rules should be prescribed by authority, rather than be determined by common usage. [PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

prescriptive adj 1: pertaining to giving directives or rules; "prescriptive grammar is concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage" [syn: prescriptive, normative] [ant: descriptive]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

131 Moby Thesaurus words for "prescriptive": absolute, accepted, accustomed, acknowledged, admitted, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, average, binding, canonical, commanding, common, commonplace, compelling, compulsory, conclusive, conformable, constrictive, consuetudinary, conventional, current, customary, decisive, decretal, decretive, decretory, dictated, dictating, dictatorial, didactic, directive, dogmatic, entailed, established, ethnocentric, everyday, exceptional, excluding, exclusive, exclusory, familiar, final, fixed, folk, formulary, generally accepted, habitual, hallowed, handed down, hard and fast, hard-and-fast, heroic, hoary, household, immemorial, imperative, imperious, imposed, inadmissible, instructive, insular, inveterate, irrevocable, jussive, legendary, long-established, long-standing, mandated, mandating, mandatory, must, mythological, narrow, normal, normative, obligating, obligatory, obtaining, of long standing, of the folk, official, oral, ordinary, overbearing, parochial, peremptory, popular, preceptive, preclusive, predominating, prescribed, prescript, prevailing, prevalent, preventive, prohibitive, received, recognized, regular, regulation, required, restrictive, rooted, rubric, seclusive, segregative, select, selective, separative, set, snobbish, standard, statutory, stock, time-honored, traditional, tried and true, true-blue, ultimate, understood, universal, unwritten, usual, venerable, vernacular, widespread, without appeal, wonted, worshipful, xenophobic