describements

Describement is a noun used to refer to the descriptive content attached to an object, data item, or observation, or to the process of producing such content. The term is uncommon and not widely standardized in professional vocabularies. It is formed from describe plus the suffix -ment, mirroring other English nouns that denote an act or artifact of a verb. In practice, describements function as descriptive annotations that accompany a record or specimen.

In library science, archivists may use describement to denote the descriptive notes that summarize an item’s title, author, date, provenance, physical characteristics, and condition. In data management, a describement often appears as descriptive metadata that explains the context, attributes, and quality of a data set, distinct from the data values themselves. In fieldwork or ethnography, describements can refer to structured narratives that document observed features of a place, object, or language.

Describement is not interchangeable with a description; it emphasizes the descriptive content associated with an item rather than a single string or label. Some writers treat describement as a higher-level category that partitions metadata into descriptive versus structural or administrative components.

Because describement is not widely adopted, some style guides advise defining the term when it is used and providing examples to avoid ambiguity. The term remains largely niche and should be used cautiously in formal writing.

Related concepts include metadata, description, descriptor, and annotation.