incline
Americanverb (used without object)
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inclines,
present (3rd person singular)
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inclined,
past participle, past
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inclining
present participle
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to deviate from the vertical or horizontal; slant.
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to have a mental tendency, preference, etc.; be disposed.
We incline to rest and relaxation these days.
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to tend, in a physical sense; approximate.
The flowers incline toward blue.
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to tend in character or in course of action.
a political philosophy that inclines toward the conservative.
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to lean; bend.
verb (used with object)
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inclines,
present (3rd person singular)
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inclined,
past participle, past
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inclining
present participle
-
to dispose (a person) in mind, habit, etc. (usually followed byto ).
His attitude did not incline me to help him.
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to bow, nod, or bend (the head, body, etc.).
He inclined his head in greeting.
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to cause to lean or bend in a particular direction.
noun
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inclines
plural
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an inclined surface; slope; slant.
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Railroads.
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Also called incline plane. Also called inclined plane. a cable railroad, the gradient of which is approximately 45°.
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any railroad or portion of a railroad, the gradient of which is too steep for ordinary locomotive adhesion alone to be effective.
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Mining.
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an angled shaft following a dipping vein.
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an inclined haulageway.
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idioms
verb
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to deviate or cause to deviate from a particular plane, esp a vertical or horizontal plane; slope or slant
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to be disposed or cause to be disposed (towards some attitude or to do something)
he inclines towards levity
that does not incline me to think that you are right
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to bend or lower (part of the body, esp the head), as in a bow or in order to listen
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to listen favourably (to)
noun
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an inclined surface or slope; gradient
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short for inclined railway
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inclinesimple
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inclinessimple
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have inclinedperfect
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has inclinedperfect
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am incliningprogressive
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are incliningprogressive
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is incliningprogressive
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have been incliningperfect progressive
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has been incliningperfect progressive
Past
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inclinedsimple
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had inclinedperfect
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was incliningprogressive
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were incliningprogressive
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had been incliningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of incline
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English inclinen, from Latin inclīnāre, equivalent to in- in- 2 + -clīnāre “to bend” ( see lean 1); replacing Middle English enclinen, from Middle French, from Latin, as above
Explanation
Something that slopes — that is, something that deviates from the straight horizontal or vertical — can be called an incline. If you like to walk up and down hills, you enjoy walking on inclines. The Latin root of the word incline is inclinare, meaning "to lean." As a verb, the word incline can mean to bend, so you incline your head. It can also mean to be favorably disposed toward something and you can think of it as having a bent for or leaning toward something. If the weather is nasty, you may be inclined to stay home to watch a movie with a bowl of popcorn at your side.
Vocabulary lists containing incline
"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
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The One and Only Ivan
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Chains
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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:
It’s not the craziest hike — it’s actually pretty calm — but there are a couple of incline points.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
But traipse past the principal’s office, scale a short incline, and you’ll be rewarded with an 80-foot-long mural that explodes with color.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2026
"I spoke about Paris being a reference point where hopefully we'll see a pretty steep incline in terms of performances," said Doris.
From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026
Cardio is different forms of interval running four days a week, and then walking on the treadmill on a steep incline two days a week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
I am at an incline, slowly inching closer and closer to the jagged cavernous opening.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
Mr. Waterfield inclines toward Hobbes’s “they that have odds of power exact as much as they can, and the weak yield to such conditions as they can get.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
We trudged on, working our way up and down the steep inclines.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2025
Just a short distance away pilgrims were walking up the steep inclines of Slieve Patrick to the St Patrick monument.
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2025
There are a couple of entr’actes in which the clown, teased by his former supervisor, inclines toward the Grinchy.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2024
Asase inclines her head and turns to me.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
"Financial markets are inclined to short-sightedness," analysts at Metzler Asset Management in Germany said in a note.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
So, even if you were inclined to treat midcaps as a distinct asset class, you’d still need to know whether they are about to outperform or underperform the smallest or largest stocks.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
They became less focused on tending larvae and more inclined to forage.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
Skidelsky demonstrates that Keynes’s desire to enable more people to experience the higher goods identified by Moore, such as friendship and aesthetic enjoyment, inclined Keynes to approach economics as “an end-satisfying system.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
She was not inclined to dissuade her mother from wandering far away from the terrace.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
The young woman in the sepia-toned photograph curtsies gracefully, inclining her head and smiling sweetly at the camera.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
The sickening realization of the Titanic's imminent fate came when Jessop turned to say something to a fellow stewardess and saw that the "forward part" of the ship was inclining toward the dark ocean.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2022
She would like to see changes, inclining a Senedd creche, the introduction of job shares and an increase in the number of MSs to decrease workload.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2021
Since then, the pair's paths have diverged, with Appleblim's housier releases inclining more towards the dancefloor, and Shackleton's series of Drawbar Organ EPs offering playful experimentalism.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 13, 2013
He held out his hand, inclining his head.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
