DECLIVITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does declivity mean? 

• DECLIVITY (noun)
  The noun DECLIVITY has 1 sense:

1. a downward slope or bend

  Familiarity information: DECLIVITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DECLIVITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A downward slope or bend

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

declension; declination; decline; declivity; descent; downslope; fall

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

incline; side; slope (an elevated geological formation)

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

downhill (the downward slope of a hill)

steep (a steep place (as on a hill))

Derivation:

declivitous (sloping down rather steeply)

 Context examples 

The declivity was so small, that I walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight o’clock in the evening.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He only desired me to observe a ruined building, upon the side of a mountain about three miles distant, of which he gave me this account: That he had a very convenient mill within half a mile of his house, turned by a current from a large river, and sufficient for his own family, as well as a great number of his tenants; that about seven years ago, a club of those projectors came to him with proposals to destroy this mill, and build another on the side of that mountain, on the long ridge whereof a long canal must be cut, for a repository of water, to be conveyed up by pipes and engines to supply the mill, because the wind and air upon a height agitated the water, and thereby made it fitter for motion, and because the water, descending down a declivity, would turn the mill with half the current of a river whose course is more upon a level.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the centre, is the natural cause why all the dews and rains, which fall upon the island, are conveyed in small rivulets toward the middle, where they are emptied into four large basins, each of about half a mile in circuit, and two hundred yards distant from the centre.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)