Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Covering a wide field of subjects; rambling.
- adj. Proceeding to a conclusion through reason rather than intuition.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Relating to the understanding, or the active facility of knowing or of forming conclusions; ratiocinative: opposed to intuitive.
- Passing rapidly from one subject to another; desultory; rambling; digressional.
- Passing over an object, as in running the eye over the parts of a large object of vision.
Wiktionary
- adj. of speech or writing Tending to digress from the main point; rambling.
- adj. philosophy Using reason and argument rather than intuition.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Passing from one thing to another; ranging over a wide field; roving; digressive; desultory.
- adj. Reasoning; proceeding from one ground to another, as in reasoning; argumentative.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. proceeding to a conclusion by reason or argument rather than intuition
- adj. (of e.g. speech and writing) tending to depart from the main point or cover a wide range of subjects
Etymologies
- Medieval Latin discursīvus, from Latin discursus, running about; see discourse. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It could be on any subject they chose, and the only requirement was that the essay had to be discursive, that is to say, they had to formulate a thesis, develop an argument, defend it, and draw a conclusion," he writes in "Crisis on Campus," a manifesto for overhauling higher education.”
“It was hence possible to con - ceive a comprehensive doctrinal learning such that, by its means, man reasons and discusses in the three arts called discursive (sermocinales), but at the same time endeavors to learn about things through the other four arts called real (reales).”
“Secondly, knowledge may be called discursive or collative in use; as at times those who know, reason from cause to effect, not in order to learn anew, but wishing to use the knowledge they have.”
Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition
“So it seems the adjective the NYT should have used was not "discursive" but "prevaricative".”
In anticipation of Friday's debate, the NYT sizes up Obama and McCain.
“Drawing on Ian Hacking's work, Haslanger has referred to this as "discursive" construction:”
“On the contrary, Jacobi had been forced to use the term, and to oppose it to reason, only because the philosophers had pre-empted the latter term, and had unduly restricted it to mean the kind of discursive conceptualization that abstracts from real things and is ultimately irrelevant to judgments of existence.”
“He had this kind of discursive education, but no discipline; and when he went to college, he was at the mercy of any who courted his affection, intoxicated his imagination, and then led him into vice.”
“I mildly call the discussion "discursive," though it would be fair in one or two instances to dub the piece frankly a medley.”
“Michaelmas, and the New Year, and there hold a kind of discursive symposium on such themes as then and there present themselves.”
“There's no room for that kind of discursive, descriptive run-on on the Web, where”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘discursive’.
-
Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 238 more...
-
cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
-
For Summer
analogous, prestidigitation, defenestrate, crux, supercilious, sunglasses, replete, foment, anthropomorphic, iota, intrinsic, prosaic and 29 more...
-
Summers Vocab 1
Vocabulary for Mr. Summers.
melee, nexus, flippant, fiat, facile, euphemism, circuitous, cavalcade, perennial, surreptitious, discursive, cacophony
-
February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
-
ADD
fragmented disconnects
desultory, discursive, malapropism, circumlocutious, refractory
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1894 more...
-
ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
-
difficult words
ordure, tatterwallop, callipygian, odious, colophon, cynosure, hardener, emollience, valetudinarian, demonym, volage, polysemantic and 257 more...
-
Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
-
Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
-
Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
-
newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for discursive.
mkb That there is a damn fine word. May 29, 2008