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condescend.

To come down or go down; to descend.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˌkɒndɪˈsɛnd/Received-Pronunciation/ˌkɑndəˈsɛnd/General-American
  1. To come down or go down; to descend.

    intransitive · obsolete
  2. To come down from a superior position and do something; to deign; (with a negative connotation) to stoop.

    figuratively · intransitive
    The boss condescended not to sack him after much persuasion from his coworkers.
  3. To treat someone as though inferior; to talk down to someone; to patronize.

    figuratively · intransitive
  4. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to go into detail; to particularize, to specify.

    figuratively · intransitive
  5. To agree to something; to accede, to assent, to consent; also, to reach an agreement.

    figuratively · intransitive · obsolete
  6. To give way or yield in a deferential manner; to be amenable or compliant.

    figuratively · intransitive · obsolete
  7. To graciously give; to vouchsafe.

    figuratively · intransitive · obsolete
  8. To reach a certain point; to settle on.

    figuratively · intransitive · obsolete
  9. To secretly make plans, usually to bring about a bad or illegal result; to conspire, to plot.

    figuratively · intransitive · obsolete
  10. To treat (someone) as though inferior; to talk down to (someone); to patronize.

    nonstandard · rare · transitive
  11. Often preceded by the dummy pronoun it: to agree to (something); to consent.

    obsolete · transitive
    It was condescended by the warring parties that they should lay down their arms and seek peace.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English condescenden, condescendre (“to deign, condescend; to accede graciously; to agree; to agree to, give consent; to make a concession, yield; etc.”), from Old French condescendre (“to descend, go down; to agree or assent to”) (modern French condescendre), from Ecclesiastical Latin condēscendere, the present active infinitive of condēscendō (“to stoop down; to condescend”), from Latin con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of several objects) + dēscendō (“to come or go down, descend; to stoop down”) (from dē- (prefix denoting reversal or undoing) + scandō (“to ascend, mount; to clamber”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to climb, scale; to dart; to jump; etc.”))).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.