décrite

Décrite is the feminine singular past participle of the French verb décrire, meaning “to describe.” It is used to express something that has been described and can also function as an adjective meaning “described” when it modifies a feminine singular noun. The masculine singular form is décrit; the feminine plural is décrites, and the masculine plural is décrits.

Usage and agreement: Décrite appears in compound tenses with the auxiliary être or avoir. With être it agrees with the subject in gender and number in passive constructions, for example: Cette histoire est décrite par l’auteur. With avoir, the participle generally does not agree unless a preceding direct object is present, as in: La scène qu’elle a décrite était poignante, where décrite agrees with the feminine singular noun scène due to the preceding direct object in the relative clause.

Semantic notes: Décrite is common in literary, journalism, and descriptive writing. It conveys that something has been described or depicted, and it can emphasize the portrayal or precision of that description. In many contexts it replaces a longer phrase like “qui a été décrite” and can appear in phrases such as “la description décrite par le témoin” to mean “the described description,” though the exact nuance depends on syntactic placement.

Etymology and related forms: Décrite derives from décrire, which comes from Latin describere. Related forms include décrits (masculine plural) and décrite (feminine singular past participle used adjectivally or in agreement with a feminine subject in passive constructions). The noun décrir is not standard; the root remains tied to describere and the concept of describing.