Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

prescriptive

 adjective
     
pre‧scrip‧tive
1 saying how something should or must be done, or what should be done:
prescriptive teaching methods
2 stating how a language should be used, rather than describing how it is used [≠ descriptive]:
prescriptive grammar
3

prescriptive right

British English law a right that has existed for so long that it is as effective as a law
—prescriptively adverb
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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