descent
noun
Simple meaning
Act of coming down.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihsehntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈsɛnt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An instance of descending; act of coming down.
A sloping passage or incline.
A way down.
A drop to a lower status or condition; decline.
A falling upon or invasion.
Lineage or hereditary derivation.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An instance of descending; act of coming down.
Used this way, descent is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use descent
- “We had difficulty in finding the correct descent.”noun
- “We climbed the mountain with difficulty, but the descent was easier.”noun
- “The descent into the cavern was wet and slippery.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Line of descent traced through both the maternal and paternal sides of the family.
The kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors.
Line of descent traced through one side of the family.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.