normative.

concerned with standards of what ought to be, rather than only what is

Use it for

Words that belong together

• normative claim
• normative theory
• normative judgment

On the page

The claim that the policy is unjust is normative.

The argument moves from descriptive evidence to a normative conclusion.

The chapter states its normative assumptions explicitly.

Usage notes

Primary curation section: Academic. Distinguish normative judgments from descriptive claims. It does not simply mean statistically normal or common. Normally non-gradable in the classification sense. Related adverb: normatively.