descent

/dɪˈsɛnt/

/dɪˈsɛnt/

Other forms: descents

If you’re on your way down, you’re making a descent, whether that’s as a passenger in an airplane that's landing, or if you’re tumbling down a staircase you just slipped on.

Descent comes from the verb descend — to go down. In the original Latin meaning, descent was used spatially, in reference to physical action, like going downstairs into a creepy basement. Metaphorically, though, we also use it to describe origins, especially in ancestry, when we consider ourselves descendants of our forebears.

Definitions of descent

1. noun

   a movement downward
   types:

   drop, fall

   a free and rapid descent by the force of gravity

   lightening

   descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped

   set

   the descent of a heavenly body below the horizon

   cascade, shower

   a sudden downpour (as of tears, sparks, etc.) likened to a rain shower

   sinking

   a descent as through liquid (especially through water)

   slide

   (geology) the descent of a large mass of earth or rocks or snow etc.

   settling, subsidence, subsiding

   a gradual sinking to a lower level

   free fall

   the ideal falling motion of something subject only to a gravitational field

   immersion, submergence, submerging, submersion

   sinking until covered completely with water

   foundering, going under

   (of a ship) sinking

   avalanche

   a slide of large masses of snow and ice and mud down a mountain

   landslide, landslip

   a slide of a large mass of dirt and rock down a mountain or cliff

   plunge

   a steep and rapid fall

   precipitation

   the act of casting down or falling headlong from a height

   type of:

   change of location, travel

   a movement through space that changes the location of something
2. noun

   the act of changing your location in a downward direction
   types:

   jump, parachuting

   descent with a parachute

   dive, nose dive, nosedive

   a steep nose-down descent by an aircraft

   abseil, rappel

   (mountaineering) a descent of a vertical cliff or wall made by using a doubled rope that is fixed to a higher point and wrapped around the body

   swoop

   a swift descent through the air

   crash dive

   a rapid descent by a submarine

   drop

   the act of dropping something

   collapse, flop

   the act of throwing yourself down

   skydiving

   performing acrobatics in free fall before pulling the ripcord of a parachute

   power dive

   a dive of an airplane that is accelerated both by gravity and by the power of the engine

   type of:

   motion, move, movement

   the act of changing location from one place to another
3. noun

   a downward slope or bend
   synonyms: declension, declination, decline, declivity, downslope, fall

   antonyms:

   ascent

   an upward slope or grade (as in a road)

   types:

   downhill

   the downward slope of a hill

   steep

   a steep place (as on a hill)

   type of:

   incline, side, slope

   an elevated geological formation
4. noun

   properties attributable to your ancestry
   synonyms: extraction, origin

   types:

   full blood

   descent from parents both of one pure breed

   type of:

   ancestry, derivation, filiation, lineage

   inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline
5. noun

   the kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors
   synonyms: filiation, line of descent, lineage

   types:

   bilateral descent

   line of descent traced through both the maternal and paternal sides of the family

   unilateral descent

   line of descent traced through one side of the family

   cognation, enation, matrilineage

   line of descent traced through the maternal side of the family

   agnation, patrilineage

   line of descent traced through the paternal side of the family

   type of:

   family relationship, kinship, relationship

   (anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption
6. noun

   the descendants of one individual
   synonyms: ancestry, blood, blood line, bloodline, line, line of descent, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, stemma, stock

   types:

   family, family line, folk, kinfolk, kinsfolk, phratry, sept

   people descended from a common ancestor

   side

   a family line of descent

   people

   members of a family line

   homefolk

   the people of your home locality (especially your own family)

   house

   aristocratic family line

   dynasty

   a sequence of powerful leaders in the same family

   gens, name

   family based on male descent

   type of:

   family tree, genealogy

   successive generations of kin