descriptivism

/ dɪˈskrɪptɪˌvɪzəm /

noun

1. ethics the theory that moral utterances have a truth value Compare prescriptivism emotivism

Other Word Forms

• descriptivist adjective

Example Sentences

To students of language, it’s a battle of descriptivism - analyzing and documenting the real-world use of language - versus prescriptivism - the idea that one manner of language use or set of rules is better than another.

From Washington Times