LaTeX - Description list - How to put the definition on a new line?

Answer 1

You could try something like

\usepackage{enumitem}
\setdescription{labelsep=\textwidth}

but a little more massaging is needed with the values of labelindent, etc., to avoid overfull boxes. To first order, however, this gives you the output you're looking for.

Answer 2

With this the label of the first level (of description environment) is aligned with the rest of the text and description texts are aligned with labels. I hope this is about what you want.

\let\origdescription\description
\renewenvironment{description}{
  \setlength{\leftmargini}{0em}
  \origdescription
  \setlength{\itemindent}{0em}
  \setlength{\labelsep}{\textwidth}
}
{\endlist}

Answer 3

You can do that with a \hfill, which is works without an extra package or multiple lines of code :)

\begin{description}
  \item[First] \hfill \\
  The first item
  \item[Second] \hfill \\
  The second item
  \item[Third] \hfill \\
  The third etc \ldots
\end{description}

Also contributed here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Formatting#Description