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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

incline.

To bend or move (something) out of a given plane or direction, often the horizontal or vertical.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɪnˈklaɪn//ˈɪn.klaɪn/

  1. To bend or move (something) out of a given plane or direction, often the horizontal or vertical.

    transitive
    He had to incline his body against the gusts to avoid being blown down in the storm.
    The people following the coffin inclined their heads in grief.

  2. To slope.

    intransitive
    Over the centuries the wind made the walls of the farmhouse incline.

  3. To tend to do or believe something, or move or be moved in a certain direction, away from a point of view, attitude, etc.

    intransitive
    He inclines to believe anything he reads in the newspapers.
    I'm inclined to give up smoking after hearing of the risks to my health.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Latin in- Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- Proto-Indo-European *-éyti Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *ḱl̥néyti ~ *ḱl̥nyénti Proto-Italic *kl(e)inō Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō ▲ Proto-Italic *klei- ~ *kli-influ. Latin clīnō Latin inclīnāre Old French enclinerbor. Middle English enclinen English incline From Middle English enclinen, from Old French encliner (modern incliner), from Latin inclīnō (“incline, tilt”), from in- + clīnō (compare -cline), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean).

noun/ɪnˈklaɪn//ˈɪn.klaɪn/

  1. A slope.

    To reach the building, we had to climb a steep incline.

  2. A portal of a subway tunnel.

    the Pleasant Street Incline
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Latin in- Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- Proto-Indo-European *-éyti Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *ḱl̥néyti ~ *ḱl̥nyénti Proto-Italic *kl(e)inō Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō ▲ Proto-Italic *klei- ~ *kli-influ. Latin clīnō Latin inclīnāre Old French enclinerbor. Middle English enclinen English incline From Middle English enclinen, from Old French encliner (modern incliner), from Latin inclīnō (“incline, tilt”), from in- + clīnō (compare -cline), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean).

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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.