ASCENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ascent mean? 

• ASCENT (noun)
  The noun ASCENT has 3 senses:

1. an upward slope or grade (as in a road)

2. a movement upward

3. the act of changing location in an upward direction

  Familiarity information: ASCENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASCENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An upward slope or grade (as in a road)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

acclivity; ascent; climb; raise; rise; upgrade

Context example:

the car couldn't make it up the rise

Hypernyms ("ascent" is a kind of...):

incline; side; slope (an elevated geological formation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ascent"):

uphill (the upward slope of a hill)

Antonym:

descent (a downward slope or bend)

Derivation:

ascend (slope upwards)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A movement upward

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

ascension; ascent; rise; rising

Context example:

they cheered the rise of the hot-air balloon

Hypernyms ("ascent" is a kind of...):

change of location; travel (a movement through space that changes the location of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ascent"):

climb; climbing; mounting (an event that involves rising to a higher point (as in altitude or temperature or intensity etc.))

elevation; lift; raising (the event of something being raised upward)

heave; heaving (an upward movement (especially a rhythmical rising and falling))

liftoff (the initial ascent of a rocket from its launching pad)

rapid climb; rapid growth; zoom (a rapid rise)

takeoff (the initial ascent of an airplane as it becomes airborne)

upheaval; uplift; upthrow; upthrust ((geology) a rise of land to a higher elevation (as in the process of mountain building))

uplifting (the rise of something)

Derivation:

ascend (travel up)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of changing location in an upward direction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

ascending; ascension; ascent; rise

Hypernyms ("ascent" is a kind of...):

motion; move; movement (the act of changing location from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ascent"):

levitation (the act of raising (a body) from the ground by presumably spiritualistic means)

heave; heaving (the act of lifting something with great effort)

climb; mount (the act of climbing something)

soar; zoom (the act of rising upward into the air)

Derivation:

ascend (travel up)

 Context examples 

When Jupiter finally left your professional tenth house in December 2019, after having spent 13 months there, it was not the end of your evolving career ascent to the top—there was more to come.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Here we stopped, breathless with our ascent, and she placed her hand lightly on my lips.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The climb was a more simple thing now that the rope dangled down the face of the worst part of the ascent.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A second paper by the same team, found that that there is a link between the rate of ascent of the magma and the release of CO2, which has implications for volcano monitoring.

(‘Crystal clocks’ used to time magma storage before volcanic eruptions, University of Cambridge)

The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and short windings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had gained the brow of the ascent.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And there, as they slowly paced the gradual ascent, heedless of every group around them, seeing neither sauntering politicians, bustling housekeepers, flirting girls, nor nursery-maids and children, they could indulge in those retrospections and acknowledgements, and especially in those explanations of what had directly preceded the present moment, which were so poignant and so ceaseless in interest.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I know that I slipped down into the steerage in a daze, and that I was just beginning the ascent to the deck, a loaded shot-gun in my hands, when I heard the startled cry:

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was beginning the ascent.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was nearly noon when I arrived at the top of the ascent.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)