Synonyms

descend

American

[dih-send] / dɪˈsɛnd /

verb (used without object)

to go or pass from a higher to a lower place; move or come down.

to descend from the mountaintop.
to pass from higher to lower in any scale or series.
to go from generals to particulars, as in a discussion.
to slope, tend, or lead downward.

The path descends to the pond.
to be inherited or transmitted, as through succeeding generations of a family.

The title descends through eldest sons.
to have a specific person or family among one's ancestors (usually followed byfrom ).

He is descended from Cromwell.
to be derived from something remote in time, especially through continuous transmission.

This festival descends from a druidic rite.
to approach or pounce upon, especially in a greedy or hasty manner (followed by on orupon ).

Thrill-seekers descended upon the scene of the crime.
to settle, as a cloud or vapor.
to appear or become manifest, as a supernatural being, state of mind, etc..

Jupiter descended to humankind.
to attack, especially with violence and suddenness (usually followed by on orupon ).

to descend upon enemy soldiers.
to sink or come down from a certain intellectual, moral, or social standard.

He would never descend to baseness.
Astronomy. to move toward the horizon, as the sun or a star.

verb (used with object)

to move downward upon or along; go or climb down (stairs, a hill, etc.).
to extend or lead down along.

The path descends the hill.

descend British

/ dɪˈsɛnd /

verb

(also tr) to move, pass, or go down (a hill, slope, staircase, etc)
(of a hill, slope, or path) to lead or extend down; slope; incline
to move to a lower level, pitch, etc; fall
(often foll by from) to be connected by a blood relationship (to a dead or extinct individual, race, species, etc)
to be passed on by parents or ancestors; be inherited
to sink or come down in morals or behaviour; lower oneself
to arrive or attack in a sudden or overwhelming way

their relatives descended upon them last week
(of the sun, moon, etc) to move towards the horizon

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of descend

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English descenden, from Old French descendre, from Latin dēscendere, equivalent to dē- de- + -scendere, combining form of scandere “to climb”; cf. scansion

Explanation

In its simplest sense, descend means to go or move downward, but there are a couple of subtle variations on this theme. Yes, a bird can descend from the sky, but also, humans are descended from prehistoric ancestors. If you've ever heard a pilot say "prepare for our descent", then you know that only one letter separates the noun descent from the verb descend. They both derive from the same Latin components de, meaning "down," and scandere, "to climb." Similarly, if someone condescends to you, they are said, derogatorily, to be coming down to your level. All Americans are descended from peoples from other continents, such as Europe, Africa, and Asia. We've all "come down" from our ancestors.

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Vocabulary lists containing descend

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How Low Can You Go? Synonyms for "Downward"

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

descend descends descended descending

Seen against that history, her arguments no longer seem to descend from the altitude of solitary thought.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

During daylight hours, the larvae descend more than 200 meters into a deep region of the lake with very little oxygen.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026

Rescuers first had to descend via a rubble-strewn parking lot ramp and navigate a flight of stairs, ever-aware of the danger of a new collapse of the tottering structure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026

Vloklinec doesn't have adequate access roads, parking areas or public toilets needed to cater for the crowds that descend on it.

From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026

They still followed the hills along the Ystrad valley, but at midday the dwarf turned west and once more began to descend toward the plains.

From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander

Jack Tucker descends from the rafters inside L.A.’s Montalbán Theatre like a kamikaze crash landing into his big moment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

Island arcs, chains of volcanoes that develop above subduction zones where one oceanic plate descends beneath another, are often unusually rich in gold.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

As firefighters in southwest France struggle to bring a forest inferno under control before yet another heatwave descends on the country, Filippi told AFP about the phenomenon.

From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026

“The idea that he descends on Westminster like he is a conquering hero, it doesn’t have a logic,” said Philip Cowley, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026

We wait, pretending to appreciate a rather homely rendering of George Washington in the lobby, when a commotion descends from a nearby staircase.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Last July, hundreds descended on Australia's Gippsland region from around the country for the most exciting event on the annual table tennis calendar.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

As they descended the stairs, their over-10-story building in the worst-hit state of La Guaira fell to pieces around them.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

The rescue teams from across the globe that descended upon this strip of coast are long gone, as is international attention to the plight of La Guaira.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

Its appearance bears little obvious resemblance to the spiders and scorpions that descended from its broader evolutionary lineage.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

At daybreak, our caravan descended on the gates of the outpost.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

The narrator is paranoid, weepy and violent, overwhelmed by visions of his own death, and the bass sounds as if it’s descending to a windowless dungeon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

High pressure has dominated the weather since late-spring, caused by a large zone of air descending through the atmosphere.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The researchers originally suspected that water released from the descending plate might directly control how much gold entered the magma.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

A dissection is when a tear occurs in the aorta’s inner lining, either in the ascending aorta or the descending one.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

“High peaks, impassable cliffs, steep snow-slopes, and sharply descending glaciers could be seen in all directions, with stretches of snow-plain overlaying the ice sheet of the interior.”

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023