slope

American  

[slohp] / sloʊp /

verb (used without object)

slopes, present (3rd person singular) sloped, past participle, past sloping present participle

1. to have or take an inclined or oblique direction or angle considered with reference to a vertical or horizontal plane; slant.

2. to move at an inclination or obliquely.

   They sloped gradually westward.

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verb (used with object)

slopes, present (3rd person singular) sloped, past participle, past sloping present participle

1. to direct at a slant or inclination; incline from the horizontal or vertical.

   The sun sloped its beams.

2. to form with a slope or slant.

   to slope an embankment.

noun

slopes plural

1. ground that has a natural incline, as the side of a hill.

2. inclination or slant, especially downward or upward.

3. deviation from the horizontal or vertical.

4. an inclined surface.

5. Usually slopes. hills, especially foothills or bluffs.

   the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

6. Mathematics.

   1. the tangent of the angle between a given straight line and the x- axis of a system of Cartesian coordinates.

   2. the derivative of the function whose graph is a given curve evaluated at a designated point.

7. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a person of East Asian origin, especially a Vietnamese or other South Asian.

idioms

1. slope off, to make one's way out slowly or furtively.

slope British  

/ sləʊp /

verb

1. to lie or cause to lie at a slanting or oblique angle

2. (intr) (esp of natural features) to follow an inclined course

   many paths sloped down the hillside

3. (intr; foll by off, away, etc) to go furtively

4. (tr) military (formerly) to hold (a rifle) in the slope position (esp in the command slope arms )

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noun

1. an inclined portion of ground

2. (plural) hills or foothills

3. any inclined surface or line

4. the degree or amount of such inclination

5. maths

   1. (of a line) the tangent of the angle between the line and another line parallel to the x- axis

   2. the first derivative of the equation of a curve at a given point

6. (formerly) the position adopted for British military drill when the rifle is rested on the shoulder

7. slang a person from Southeast Asia, especially a Vietnamese

Sensitive Note

See slant-eyed.

Usage

What does slope mean? In mathematics, the slope (also called the gradient) of a line is a measurement of how steep the line is or how much of a slant it has. In math, a line is an object with no thickness that extends forever in both directions. In basic math, we assume lines to be perfectly straight, meaning they don’t curve or change directions to form angles. Take a piece of graph paper to create a Cartesian plane by drawing two perpendicular lines. These two lines are called the axes. The axis going sideways is the x-axis, and the axis going up and down is the y-axis. We use these axes to label where any point on the plane is located. You can then measure the slope of a line compared to the x-axis by using the Cartesian coordinates on your Cartesian plane.

Synonym Usage

Slope, slant mean to incline away from a relatively straight surface or line used as a reference. To slope is to incline vertically in an oblique direction: The ground slopes ( upward or downward ) sharply here. To slant is to fall to one side, to lie obliquely to some line whether horizontal or perpendicular: The road slants off to the right.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sloper
  noun
• slopingness
  noun
• sloping
  adjective
• unsloped
  adjective
• unsloping
  adjective
• slopingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• slopes
  plural

Participles

• sloping
  present
• sloped
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• slope
  simple
• slopes
  simple
• have sloped
  perfect
• has sloped
  perfect
• am sloping
  progressive
• are sloping
  progressive
• is sloping
  progressive
• have been sloping
  perfect progressive
• has been sloping
  perfect progressive

Past

• sloped
  simple
• had sloped
  perfect
• was sloping
  progressive
• were sloping
  progressive
• had been sloping
  perfect progressive

Future

• will slope
  simple
• will have sloped
  perfect
• will be sloping
  progressive
• will have been sloping
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of slope

First recorded in 1495–1505; aphetic variant of aslope; akin to slip ¹

Explanation

If you find yourself on a slippery slope, watch out: you could be sliding down a hill. Land that is not level is called a slope. Slope can also be a verb, as in land that slopes down to sea level. Language experts believe the word slope came from the Middle English word aslope, an adverb that means “at an angle.” The word has a noun form you can use for something that is at an angle — on a slope — like a steep hill or the ramp in a parking garage. It also has a verb form that can be used to describe something that slants, like someone's signature with letters that slope to the left or an angled haircut that slopes to cover one eye.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

slope slopes sloped sloping

Still, Barclays economist Brian Tan expects it to be a close call, with the risk of a 50 basis point increase to the policy band slope to be relatively high.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

"I was also very surprised about how deep this species was found. The observation from the slope of the Tonga Trench is nearly 700 meters deeper than this species was known to live."

From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026

Notably, the slope of the 200-day simple moving average turned higher in January, signaling a potential shift in longer-term trend momentum.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

This is implicit in the chart above, which shows the slope of the fair-value line becoming nearly flat.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026

‘I’m coming!’ he shouted, pulling himself out an starting up the slope.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

Tilbert Naegler’s family has been producing Riesling for six generations from their vineyard on the slopes of the Rhine Gorge in western Germany.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

His farm in a meadow close by the village of Sofiytsi in southern Bulgaria backs onto the wooded slopes of the mountain range associated with the mythological musician Orpheus.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

Loose rock and debris shifted down slopes, reshaping parts of the surface and contributing to the softened appearance of many craters visible in Lucy's images.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026

Jurin, formerly a professional snowboarder, gets back on the slopes when she can.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026

Throughout the night they had ridden, as it seemed to Taran, down a long series of descending slopes.

From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander

The vineyard for the domaine’s namesake wine is in the village of Vosne-Romanée, where vines grow on a gently sloped plot of less than 5 acres.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026

Now that his youngest son had moved out, the 56-year-old retired home builder wanted to downsize from his 6-acre, sloped property to a 2,200 square-foot house in Hayden, Idaho, which he had built himself.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 20, 2025

Other wider sections of the Radical Road would have a sloped earth embankment built to catch any rockfall.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2025

He called it “an excellent example of the Midcentury Modern style,” noting its Googie-style sign, “simple geometric volumes, low sloped roof, relatively chaste exterior walls and decorative concrete blocks.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2025

Jasper sloped in to join us, too warm in the sun, his tongue lolling from his mouth.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

“Crude oil has been trading in a downward sloping channel since the middle of May.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Both term structures are sloping upwards, and the VIX futures are trading with a large premium to VIX.

From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026

The world's best struggled to get to grips with the task presented by an undulating course with thick rough and sloping greens.

From BBC ● May 15, 2026

The stock has found support at its 200-day simple moving average since June, when the long-term trend line began sloping higher.

From Barron's ● May 12, 2026

The ground kept sloping up and the cows ran up the hill.

From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner

Related Words

• hill
• ramp
• shelf