Declension

//dɪˈklɛn.ʃən// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A falling off, decay or descent. countable, uncountable

    "Refinement of feeling, intellectual tastes, and a noble hospitality, were among the features of his character; and hoary years brought no mental declension, and drew no shade over the ardent affections by which he was distinguished, and in whose reciprocity, was his undeclining solace."

  2. 2
    a class of nouns or pronouns or adjectives in Indo-European languages having the same (or very similar) inflectional forms wordnet
  3. 3
    The act of declining a word; the act of listing the inflections of a noun, pronoun or adjective in order. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a downward slope or bend wordnet
  5. 5
    The product of that act; a list of declined forms. countable, uncountable

    "a page full of declensions"

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    process of changing to an inferior state wordnet
  2. 7
    A way of categorizing nouns, pronouns, or adjectives according to the inflections they receive. countable, uncountable

    "In Latin, 'amicus' belongs to the second declension. Most second-declension nouns end in '-i' in the genitive singular and '-um' in the accusative singular."

  3. 8
    the inflection of nouns and pronouns and adjectives in Indo-European languages wordnet

Etymology

From late Middle English declinson, from Middle French declinaison (Modern French: déclinaison), from Latin dēclīnātiō. Doublet of declination.

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