prescriptive

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adjective pre·scrip·tive \ pri-ˈskrip-tiv \

Definition of prescriptive

1 :serving to prescribe

prescriptive rules of usage

2 :acquired by, founded on, or determined by prescription or by long-standing custom

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prescriptively

adverb

See prescriptive defined for English-language learners

Examples of prescriptive in a Sentence

Critics claim the new rules are too prescriptive.
even in this age of e-mail the prescriptive response to a wedding gift is a handwritten thank-you note

Recent Examples of prescriptive from the Web

Some of the department’s other responses to states about their ESSA accountability plans seemed prescriptive to some local-control advocates.

— valerie strauss, Washington Post, "Science teachers: DeVos’s Education Department is misinterpreting federal law," 2 July 2017
Though porn GIFs on Tumblr are less prescriptive, there’s something inspiring about how Holly uses them to accompany practical female masturbation tips.

— alana hope levinson, Glamour, "More Women Are Getting Off to Porn GIFs, Thanks to Tumblr," 29 June 2017
Where No Child garnered criticism for being punitive and prescriptive, the new law shifts the most control over schools to states.

— joy resmovits, latimes.com, "Californians, you have until Friday to comment on this key education plan," 29 June 2017
One of the brands credited with breaking down those strict prescriptive hierarchies and setting up a different sort of future for the logo in the digital age is Nike.

— rob walker, Fortune, "How Logos Became the Most Important Quarter-Inch in Business," 16 June 2017
While competency laws exist for juveniles suffering from mental illness, there are no clear, prescriptive guidelines for juveniles on the delivery and duration of services like those that exist in the adult system.

— laura garnette, The Mercury News, "Commentary: Mentally ill kids shouldn’t languish in juvenile halls," 25 May 2017
In Zathura, was the game supposed to be predictive or prescriptive?

— yohana desta, VanityFair.com, "Scarlett Johansson Slyly Addresses Ghost In the Shell’s Disappointing Box Office," 22 Apr. 2017
Green roofs should not be mandated by a highly prescriptive law, as supporters of the ballot measure are proposing.

— the denver post editorial board, The Denver Post, "Green roofs will benefit Denver, but they shouldn’t be mandated," 14 Mar. 2017
But thanks to the Sequoia, Nichols thinks their research could go beyond just modeling into prescriptive design — in other words, figuring out what the optimum design would be.

— klint finley, WIRED, "Researchers Set Record With Million-Core Calculation," 28 Jan. 2013

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'prescriptive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of prescriptive

1663

prescriptive Synonyms

Synonyms

classical, conventional, customary, traditional

Antonyms

nontraditional, unconventional, uncustomary, untraditional

Related Words

authentic, established, fixed, historical; common, habitual, orthodox, usual; ancestral, historic, old-time, old-world; aged, age-old, ancient, antediluvian, hoary, old, venerable; ageless, dateless, immemorial, timeless

Near Antonyms

contemporary, current, modern, modernized, new, new-age, present-day, updated, up-to-date; futuristic, high-tech (also hi-tech), hot, latest, mod, modernistic, newfangled, new-fashioned, red-hot, space-age, state-of-the-art, supermodern, ultramodern; nonconformist, nonorthodox, original, progressive, revolutionary, unorthodox, unprecedented, unusual

PRESCRIPTIVE Defined for English Language Learners

prescriptive

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adjective

Definition of prescriptive for English Language Learners

: giving exact rules, directions, or instructions about how you should do something
: providing rules and opinions that tell people how language should be used