description
/dɪˈskɹɪpʃən/noun
description is spelled D-E-S-C-R-I-P-T-I-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is discription: about 630 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 21 of all searches for the word. Description is a noun meaning “A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the…”. The plural of description is descriptions.
How many letters and syllables are in description?
| Letters | 11: D-E-S-C-R-I-P-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 54 times per million words; the 1,899th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, discription, about 630 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell description?
Description is spelled D-E-S-C-R-I-P-T-I-O-N. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 19 of the searches for description in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is description?
Description appears 54 times per million words in written English, the 1,899th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce description?
- /dɪˈskɹɪpʃən/
- /dəˈskɹɪpʃən/
Description has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-description.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of description
- descriptions plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does description mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
give a verbal description of the events
- 2
The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.
- 3
A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.
The zoo had no lions, tigers, or cats of any description.
- 4
A scientific documentation of a taxon for the purpose of introducing it to science.
The type description of the fungus was written by a botanist.
- 5
The act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage in a given speech community, as opposed to prescription, i.e. laying down norms of language usage.
- 6
A descriptive linguistic survey.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate description?
Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of description: desc, desc., descrip..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Description in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | description , signalement |
| German | Beschreibung, Deskription |
| Portuguese | descrição |
| Spanish | descripción , señalamiento |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does description come from?
From Middle English descripcioun, from Old French description and its etymon, Latin dēscrīptiō, noun of action of dēscrībō (“to describe”). Equivalent to describe + -tion.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).