Pritchardia glabrata is a miniature palm species, reaching heights of 1–2 meters. It features a slender trunk approximately 15–20 cm in diameter and boasts an open crown of around 12–16 leaves. The leaves are simple, spirally arranged, and strongly folded, measuring about 65 cm in length from the ligule to the apex. The leaf blades are chartaceous (papery), and the lower surfaces are dotted with very minute, non-fringed, orbicular lepidia. The leaf segments are rigid but have flexible apices that bend in the wind. The lower costae (midrib) are initially fugaciously brown and scaly but soon become glabrate. These veins run parallel. The 40 cm-long petioles are sparsely and fugaciously appressed brown lepidote, turning bright green on both surfaces except for a persistent marginal band of lepidia. Stipules are absent. The inflorescences are roughly equal to the petioles in length, with the panicles being shorter than the peduncular part, measuring about 15 cm long, and glabrous. The prophyll and peduncular bracts resemble mule ears, being acuminate and chartaceous. The flowers are bisexual, sessile, and arranged spirally along the rachillae, becoming nearly bifarious above. The calyx is campanulate, thickened at the base, and marked by converging veins. The corolla consists of three petals, adnate basally to the staminal filament tube to about the calyx’s height, with valvate lobes in bud. The stamens are six in number, with filaments flattened and thick at the base, then distinct and subulate above, surrounding the carpels. The ovary is superior with three carpels, typically only one maturing, and a trigonous column formed by the connate styles leading to a shallowly trifid stigma. The fruit is globose-ovoid, measuring 2.1–2.4 cm in length and 1.6–2 cm in diameter when immature. The seeds are shiny and distinct from the endocarp except at the hilum, with a homogeneous endosperm and a lateral embryo near the base. It is typically found on cliffs and in mesic gulches at approximately 550 meters in elevation.