descent

(dĭ-sĕnt')

1. The act or an instance of descending.
2. A way down.
3. A downward incline or passage; a slope.
4. 1. Hereditary derivation; lineage: a person of African descent.
   2. One generation of a specific lineage.
5. 1. The fact or process of coming down or being derived from a source: a paper tracing the descent of the novel from old picaresque tales.
   2. Development in form or structure during transmission from an original source.
6. Law. Transference of property by inheritance.
7. A lowering or decline, as in status or level: Her career went into a rapid descent after the charges of misconduct.
8. A sudden visit or attack; an onslaught.

[Middle English, from Old French, descent, from feminine past participle of descendre, to descend. See descend.]

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noun

1. The act of dropping from a height: drop, fall. See rise/fall.
2. A downward slope or distance: decline, declivity, drop, fall, pitch. See rise/fall.
3. One's ancestors or their character or one's ancestral derivation: ancestry, birth, blood, bloodline, extraction, family, genealogy, line, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, seed, stock. See kin, precede/follow.
4. A sudden drop to a lower condition or status: comedown, down, downfall, downgrade. See rise/fall.
5. A usually swift downward trend, as in prices: decline, dip, dive, downslide, downswing, downtrend, downturn, drop, drop-off, fall, nosedive, plunge, skid, slide, slump, tumble. See increase/decrease.

Definition: deterioration
Antonyms: improvement, upgrade

n

Definition: moving down; lowering
Antonyms: ascension, ascent, elevation, increase, rise, upgrade

Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance, or by any act of law, as distinguished from purchase. Title by descent is the title by which one person, upon the death of another, acquires the real estate of the latter as an heir at law. The title by inheritance is in all cases called descent, although by statute law the title is sometimes made to ascend. The division among those legally entitled thereto of the real property of intestates.

Tutor's tip: A "decent" (respectable, honest) person with a "descent" (lineage or ancestry) from a good family will "dissent" (disagree) from mob rule, for fear the situation will "descend" (to move to a lower place) into chaos.

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A dream of descending an elevator, or by any other means-may indicate a decline in energy or status. Alternatively, it may symbolize descent into the unconscious in a journey of self-discovery.

• Space Exploration and Rocketry - descent: drop from Earth orbit, reentry into atmosphere, and touchdown
• Kinship and Ancestry - descent: extraction; lineage, derivation from an ancestor

Look up descent in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Not to be confused with Dissent.

Descent may refer to:

In genealogy and inheritance:

• Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
• Kinship and descent, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
  • Pedigree chart or family tree
  • Ancestry
  • Heritage
• Phylogenetics
  • Tree diagram (disambiguation)
• Inheritance (law and property)

In mathematics:

• Infinite descent, a method going back to Fermat to solve Diophantine equations
• Descent (category theory), an idea extending the notion of "gluing" in topology
• Hadamard's method of descent, a technique for solving partial differential equations
• Gradient descent, a first-order optimization algorithm going back to Newton

Other uses:

• Descent (aircraft), the decrease of an aircraft in altitude during flight
• Descent (font), the distance that a typeface descends below the baseline in typography

As a proper name

In film:

• The Descent, a 2005 horror film
  • The Descent Part 2, the 2009 sequel to the 2005 film
• Descent (2005 film), a television film on the Sci-Fi Channel
• Descent (2007 film), a thriller starring Rosario Dawson

In gaming:

• Descent (video game), first in a series from Interplay Entertainment and Parallax Software

• Descent II, sequel to Descent
• Descent 3, sequel to Descent II

• Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War, a computer game by Volition Inc
• Descent: Journeys in the Dark, a 2005 board game by Fantasy Flight Games

In literature:

• The Descent (novel), by Jeff Long
• Descent, caving magazine from Wild Places Publishing first published in 1969

In music:

• Descent, an album by the band This Burning Effigy

In television:

• "Descent" (The Outer Limits), an episode of the science fiction television series The Outer Limits
• "Descent" (Stargate SG-1), an episode of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1
• "Descent" (Star Trek: The Next Generation), a two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation

See also

• Dissent (homophone)

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - nedstigning, vej ned, skråning ned, afstamning, arv, tilbagegang, pludseligt angreb

Nederlands (Dutch)
val, helling, afdaling, vernedering, afkomst, aanval, overerving

Français (French)
n. - descente dans, (fig) chute dans, (Aviat, Sport) descente, pente, origine, famille, transmission (par héritage), (Mil) irruption, descente

Deutsch (German)
n. - Abstieg, Abfall, Einfall, Herkunft

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κάθοδος, κατάβαση, κατηφοριά, κατωφέρεια, καταγωγή, φύτρα, ξαφνική επίθεση, επιδρομή (κν. γιουρούσι), (νομ.) κληρονομική μεταβίβαση

Italiano (Italian)
origine, discendenza, stirpe

Português (Portuguese)
n. - origem (f), declínio (m), descida (f)

Русский (Russian)
спуск

Español (Spanish)
n. - descenso, bajada, declive, descendencia, ascendencia

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - nedstigande, sluttning, härstamning

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
降落, 侵袭, 家系

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 降落, 侵襲, 家系

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 하락, 습격, 임시 검문

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 降下, 下り坂, 下落, 転落, 家系, 遺伝, 急襲
v. - 香気を除く, 香腺を除去する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) هبوط, نزول, انحدار, سلاله‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ירידה, הידרדרות, התנפלות, שושלת, מוצא, הורשה‬

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