adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A descent.

   "continual ascendings and descendings"

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of descend form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   Moving or sloping downwards. not-comparable
2. 2
   Ordered such that each element is less than or equal to the previous element. (of a sequence) not-comparable

   "Please arrange these numbers in a descending order."

3. 3
   Ordered such that each element is less than or equal to the previous element. (of a sequence); Causing a sequence to follow a descending order. not-comparable

   "We used a descending sort."

4. 4
   Becoming lower in pitch. not-comparable

Adjective

1. 1
   coming down or downward wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

descendantdownwarddroppingadvanceascendingascent

Antonyms

All antonyms

ascending

Example

More examples

"So when their screams descending fill the strand, / Misenus from his outlook sounds the fray."

Etymology

From descend + -ing.

Related phrases

descending chain conditiondescending colondescending nodedescending palatine arterydescending perineum syndromedescending s

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