descending

[dɪˈsɛndɪŋ]

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descend

Descending means moving or going downwards.

When we talk about descending, we often think of something that's getting smaller or lower. Imagine you're on a mountain and you start climbing down - you're descending. It can also mean reducing in size or amount: for example, if the price is descending, it means it's getting cheaper. In music, to descend means to move from a higher note to a lower one.

How common is "descending"?

Word descending is considered rare in modern English.
It has a balanced usage among all categories: speech, fiction, newspapers and academic texts.

Definitions

verb

To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, for example by falling, flowing, walking, climbing etc.
Example: The rain descended, and the floods came.
To enter mentally; to retire.
(with on or upon) To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
Example: And on the suitors let thy wrath descend.
To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or rank; to lower or abase oneself
Example: he descended from his high estate
To pass from the more general or important to the specific or less important matters to be considered.
To come down, as from a source, original, or stock
To be derived (from)
To proceed by generation or by transmission; to happen by inheritance.
Example: A crown descends to the heir.
To move toward the south, or to the southward.
To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of
Example: they descended the river in boats; to descend a ladder

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go downascendgo up

noun

A descent.
Example: continual ascendings and descendings

adjective

(of a sequence) Ordered such that each element is less than or equal to the previous element.
Example: Please arrange these numbers in a descending order.
That causes a sequence to follow a descending order.
Example: We used a descending sort.

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ascending

Real examples of "descending" in context

The Louvre | The Wildest Robbery of the 21st Century

Entertainment

This is a real video filmed by a tourist of the thieves descending the lift.

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