adj, adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   A position down along a gradient from a starting position.
2. 2
   a location that receives groundwater from another location; similar to downstream.

   "Monitoring wells are installed downgradient of a contamination source to detect a contaminant plume."

Adverb

1. 1
   The direction along a gradient.
2. 2
   a direction that groundwater flows toward.

Antonyms

All antonyms

upgradient

Example

More examples

"Monitoring wells are installed downgradient of a contamination source to detect a contaminant plume."

Etymology

From down- + gradient.

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