What does discursive mean?
Discursive is an adjective describing speech or writing that moves from topic to topic rather than following a straight line. A discursive essay or conversation is one rich in digressions, asides, and detours — sometimes a fault implying woolly-mindedness, and sometimes a virtue suggesting breadth, curiosity, and an agreeably wandering intelligence. The word carries this double edge: critics deploy it to mean rambling and unfocused, while admirers use it of the meandering, essayistic style associated with writers such as Montaigne. In philosophy, discursive has a narrower, technical meaning: it describes reasoning that advances step by step through concepts and arguments, as opposed to intuitive apprehension of a truth all at once. Derived from Latin discurrere, 'to run about,' it entered English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. It remains chiefly a formal or literary word, valuable precisely because no commoner term captures both its critical and its affectionate shades.
(Of speech or writing) digressing from subject to subject; rambling.
"Her discursive memoir drifts happily between family history, travel, and recipes."
Frequently evaluative: critical when implying a lack of focus, approving when praising a relaxed, wide-ranging style.
(Philosophy) Relating to knowledge or reasoning obtained by a successive sequence of ideas or arguments rather than by direct intuition.
"Kant held that human cognition is essentially discursive, depending on concepts rather than intellectual intuition."
A technical sense found mainly in philosophy, especially discussions of Kant and medieval scholasticism.
Descartes used 'discursive' to name step-by-step reasoning — the very thinking style he distrusted compared to intuition.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of discursive
Discursive derives from the Latin verb discurrere, meaning 'to run about' or 'to range over', formed from dis- ('apart') and currere ('to run'). It passed into English via Medieval Latin discursivus in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, initially carrying both its philosophical sense of reasoning that runs stepwise through argument and its broader sense of ranging over many topics. Its English cousins from the same Latin root include discourse and discuss, which likewise preserve the image of thought 'running back and forth'.
Related word forms
How discursive is actually used
Mostly formal or literary in register. The 'rambling' sense is often mildly critical, suggesting a lack of focus, though writers may use it appreciatively of a leisurely, essayistic style. The philosophical sense is technical and largely confined to academic contexts.
Easily confused with discursive
'Cursive' describes flowing handwriting in which letters are joined, while 'discursive' describes talk or writing that rambles from topic to topic.