descriptor

de·scrip·tor  (d-skrptr)

n. Computer Science

A word, phrase, or alphanumeric character used to identify an item in an information storage and retrieval system.

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[Late Latin, describer, from Latin dscrbere, dscrpt-, to describe; see describe.]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	descriptor - the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something; "the inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached" form, signifier, word form linguistics - the scientific study of language word - a unit of language that native speakers can identify; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made"; "he hardly said ten words all morning" plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one singular, singular form - the form of a word that is used to denote a singleton ghost word - a word form that has entered the language through the perpetuation of an error root word, stem, root, theme, radical, base - (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" etymon, root - a simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes citation form, entry word, main entry word - the form of a word that heads a lexical entry and is alphabetized in a dictionary abbreviation - a shortened form of a word or phrase acronym - a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name
	2.	descriptor - a piece of stored information that is used to identify an item in an information storage and retrieval system information - knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction computer science, computing - the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures