ascend

American  

[uh-send] / əˈsɛnd /

verb (used without object)

1. to move, climb, or go upward; mount; rise.

   The airplane ascended into the clouds.

   Synonyms:

   soar

   Antonyms:

   descend

2. to slant upward.

3. to rise to a higher point, rank, or degree; proceed from an inferior to a superior degree or level.

   to ascend to the presidency.

4. to go toward the source or beginning; go back in time.

5. Music. to rise in pitch; pass from any tone to a higher one.

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verb (used with object)

1. to go or move upward upon or along; climb; mount.

   to ascend a lookout tower;

   to ascend stairs.

   Antonyms:

   descend

2. to gain or succeed to; acquire.

   to ascend the throne.

ascend British  

/ əˈsɛnd /

verb

1. to go or move up (a ladder, hill, slope, etc); mount; climb

2. (intr) to slope or incline upwards

3. (intr) to rise to a higher point, level, degree, etc

4. to follow (a river) upstream towards its source

5. to trace (a genealogy, etc) back in time

6. to sing or play (a scale, arpeggio, etc) from the lower to higher notes

7. to become king or queen

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Related Words

See climb.

Other Word Forms

• ascendable
  adjective
• ascendible
  adjective
• reascend
  verb
• unascendable
  adjective
• unascended
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of ascend

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English ascenden, from Anglo-French ascendre, from Latin ascendere “to climb up,” from a- a- ⁵ + -scendere, combining form of scandere “to climb”

Explanation

To ascend is to move or travel upwards. You can do this literally, like when you ascend to 35,000 feet after your plane takes off, or figuratively, like when you win the lottery and ascend to a higher social class. Riding the escalators in the department store is one way to amuse yourself while your parents shop. You can ascend all the way to the 8th floor, and then descend back to the ground floor. Both ascend and descend come from the Latin verb scandere, which means "to climb." It's the prefixes that make all the difference. The a- of ascend makes the word mean "climb up," while the de- of its antonym makes descend mean "climb down."

Example Sentences

DeepSeek said it validated one of the V4’s key efficiency techniques on both Nvidia GPUs and Huawei’s Ascend NPUs.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

Nvidia’s H200 chip offers a 32% processing-power advantage over Huawei’s Ascend 910C, making it desirable for Chinese AI developers.

From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026

On the basis of pure computing power, the U.S. holds an indisputable edge, as Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips are estimated to be five-times more powerful than Huawei’s flagship Ascend chips.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 24, 2026

The Ascend report by carried out by Thales Alenia Space - a joint venture between French and Italian aerospace groups Thales and Leonardo - published its results.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2025

Neal moved to Ascend Communications, which built little boxes to terminate Internet signals and was acquired by Lucent Technologies in 1999 for $24 billion, one of the largest acquisitions in history.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Related Words

• climb
• escalate
• move up
• soar
• take off