Declivity

//dɪˈklɪvɪti// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The downward slope of a curve.

    "The Declivity was ſo ſmall, that I walked near a mile before I got to the Shore, which I conjectur'd was about eight a-clock in the Evening."

  2. 2
    a downward slope or bend wordnet
  3. 3
    A downward bend in a path.
  4. 4
    An inward curve of the exoskeleton of an insect, such as between body segments; a segment of an insect's body where the exoskeleton curves inward.

    "1979, Entomology Circular, Issue 200, Part 366, Division of Plant Industry, page number not shown, Males of all species have more developed armature of the elytral declivity than females (Figs. S, 6, 8, 9, 11-14)."

Synonyms

All synonyms
declensiondeclinationdeclinedescentdescentdip

Example

More examples

"A few yards below the brow of the hill on which he paused a team of horses made its appearance, having reached the place by dint of half an hour's serpentine progress from the bottom of the immense declivity."

Etymology

1610s, from French déclivité, from Latin declivitatem, dēclīvitās, from dēclivis (“a sloping downward”), from de (“down”) + clīvus (“a slope”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱleywo-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to lean”) (English lean).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.