English → Latin
“description” in Latin
dēscrīptiōdescription; diagram, plan; transcript, copynārrātiōnarration, narrative, storyēnārrātiōa detailed exposition or interpretation; a teacher's explanation or interpretation of a text, which he would deliver to expositiōexposition, exhibition; narration; definition, explanationgeōgraphiageography (study of physical structure and inhabitants of the Earth)chōrographiachorographytopographiatopography (study of the forms of land surfaces)
The English word description itself goes back to Latin scrībō, through dēscrīptiō.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
description
descriptio; narratio; enarratio; expositio: eloquent beyond description., supra quam enarrari potest eloquens: exquisite beyond all description, supra quam ut describi possit eximius: description of the earth, geographia of a country, chorographia (Vitrvius, 10, 2, 6, where ed. Schneider, chorographus is used): description of a place, topographia. By analogy other words may be formed in the same manner, as “description of the moon,” or map of the moon, *selenographia; of mountains, *orographia; of the world, *cosmographia, and so forth. A graphic description, alicujus rei paene sub aspectum subjectio: alicujus rei sub oculos subjectio.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for description?
- The usual Latin words for “description” are dēscrīptiō, nārrātiō, ēnārrātiō; also expositiō, geōgraphia, chōrographia. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.