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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

descent.

An instance of descending; act of coming down.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɪˈsɛnt/UK/dəˈsɛnt/General-American/dɪˈsɛnt/General-American/diˈsɛnt/General-American
  1. An instance of descending; act of coming down.

    countable · uncountable
    We climbed the mountain with difficulty, but the descent was easier.
  2. A way down.

    countable · uncountable
    We had difficulty in finding the correct descent.
  3. A sloping passage or incline.

    countable · uncountable
    The descent into the cavern was wet and slippery.
  4. Lineage or hereditary derivation.

    countable · uncountable
    Our guide was of Welsh descent.
  5. A drop to a lower status or condition; decline.

    countable · uncountable
    After that, the holiday went into a steep descent.
  6. A falling upon or invasion.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A particular extension of the idea of gluing.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English and Anglo-Norman descente, from Anglo-Norman descendre (“to descend”); see descend. Compare ascent, ascend. Doublet of desant.

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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.