| / English Dictionary |
DESCENT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of changing your location in a downward direction
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("descent" is a kind of...):
motion; move; movement (the act of changing location from one place to another)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "descent"):
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)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Properties attributable to your ancestry
Example:
he comes from good origins
Synonyms:
descent; extraction; origin
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("descent" is a kind of...):
ancestry; derivation; filiation; lineage (inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "descent"):
full blood (descent from parents both of one pure breed)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A movement downward
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("descent" is a kind of...):
change of location; travel (a movement through space that changes the location of something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "descent"):
slide ((geology) the descent of a large mass of earth or rocks or snow etc.)
sinking (a descent as through liquid (especially through water))
cascade; shower (a sudden downpour (as of tears or sparks etc) likened to a rain shower)
set (the descent of a heavenly body below the horizon)
lightening (descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped)
drop; fall (a free and rapid descent by the force of gravity)
Derivation:
descend (move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The descendants of one individual
Example:
his entire lineage has been warriors
Synonyms:
ancestry; blood; blood line; bloodline; descent; line; line of descent; lineage; origin; parentage; pedigree; stemma; stock
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("descent" is a kind of...):
family tree; genealogy (successive generations of kin)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "descent"):
family; family line; folk; kinfolk; kinsfolk; phratry; sept (people descended from a common ancestor)
side (a family line of descent)
Derivation:
descend (come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for example)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A downward slope or bend
Synonyms:
declension; declination; decline; declivity; descent; downslope; fall
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("descent" is a kind of...):
incline; side; slope (an elevated geological formation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "descent"):
downhill (the downward slope of a hill)
steep (a steep place (as on a hill))
Antonym:
ascent (an upward slope or grade (as in a road))
Sense 6
Meaning:
The kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors
Synonyms:
descent; filiation; line of descent; lineage
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("descent" is a kind of...):
family relationship; kinship; relationship ((anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "descent"):
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)
Derivation:
descend (come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for example)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, third person plural) of the verb descent
Context examples:
A coded value specifying a group of animals presumably related by descent from common ancestors and visibly similar in most characteristics.
(Breed Code, NCI Thesaurus)
A method to find the position of the fetal head in the uterine cavity in its descent during labor.
(Assessment of Fetal Attitude, NCI Thesaurus)
Individuals who have dark constitutive pigmentation but become noticeably darker with sun exposure, especially light complected black individuals, those of Indian descent.
(Fitzpatrick Skin Type V, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)
A rare genetic syndrome which occurs primarily among individuals of Norwegian descent with an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance.
(Aagenaes Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)
They only tested women of European descent, so more work needs to be done involving women of other races and ethnic origins.
(New Genetic Discovery May Eventually End Premature Birth, VOA)
The final descent gave Rosetta the opportunity to study the comet's gas, dust and plasma environment very close to its surface, as well as take very high-resolution images.
(Final Descent Image from Rosetta Spacecraft, NASA)
I pity you, Miss Eliza, for this discovery of your favourite's guilt; but really, considering his descent, one could not expect much better.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the distaff side.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to the particular.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I knew that I ought to hasten my descent towards the valley, as I should soon be encompassed in darkness; but my heart was heavy, and my steps slow.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
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