DESCENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does descent mean? 

• DESCENT (noun)
  The noun DESCENT has 6 senses:

1. a movement downward

2. properties attributable to your ancestry

3. the act of changing your location in a downward direction

4. the kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors

5. a downward slope or bend

6. the descendants of one individual

  Familiarity information: DESCENT used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESCENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A movement downward

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("descent" 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 "descent"):

set (the descent of a heavenly body below the horizon)

slide ((geology) the descent of a large mass of earth or rocks or snow etc.)

sinking (a descent as through liquid (especially through water))

cascade; shower (a sudden downpour (as of tears or sparks etc) likened to a rain shower)

lightening (descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped)

drop; fall (a free and rapid descent by the force of gravity)

Derivation:

descend (move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Properties attributable to your ancestry

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

descent; extraction; origin

Context example:

he comes from good origins

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

ancestry; derivation; filiation; lineage (inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline)

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

full blood (descent from parents both of one pure breed)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of changing your location in a downward direction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("descent" 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 "descent"):

dive; nose dive; nosedive (a steep nose-down descent by an aircraft)

abseil; rappel ((mountaineering) a descent of a vertical cliff or wall made by using a doubled rope that is fixed to a higher point and wrapped around the body)

swoop (a swift descent through the air)

crash dive (a rapid descent by a submarine)

drop (the act of dropping something)

collapse; flop (the act of throwing yourself down)

jump; parachuting (descent with a parachute)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Synonyms:

descent; filiation; line of descent; lineage

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

family relationship; kinship; relationship ((anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption)

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

bilateral descent (line of descent traced through both the maternal and paternal sides of the family)

unilateral descent (line of descent traced through one side of the family)

Derivation:

descend (come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for example)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A downward slope or bend

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

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

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

incline; side; slope (an elevated geological formation)

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

downhill (the downward slope of a hill)

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

Antonym:

ascent (an upward slope or grade (as in a road))

Sense 6

Meaning:

The descendants of one individual

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

ancestry; blood; blood line; bloodline; descent; line; line of descent; lineage; origin; parentage; pedigree; stemma; stock

Context example:

his entire lineage has been warriors

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

family tree; genealogy (successive generations of kin)

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

family; family line; folk; kinfolk; kinsfolk; phratry; sept (people descended from a common ancestor)

side (a family line of descent)

Derivation:

descend (come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for example)

 Context examples 

Among participants of European descent, there was additionally a genetic tie between sleeplessness and major depression.

(Can't Sleep? Could Be Down to Genetics, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The group found comparable results in a group of more than 64,000 people of South Asian, East Asian, and African descent.

(The genetics of blood pressure, NIH)

It is also seen in older men of Jewish or Mediterranean descent, or in young men in Africa.

(Kaposi sarcoma, NCI Dictionary)

This was to gain impetus for the descent.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There was a portrait within of a man strikingly handsome and intelligent-looking, but bearing unmistakable signs upon his features of his African descent.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A person related by descent rather than by marriage or law.

(Biological Relative, NCI Thesaurus)

Descent in a line from a common progenitor or source.

(Lineage, NCI Thesaurus)

A single step in the line of descent from a common ancestor.

(Generation, NCI Thesaurus)

The defective alcohol metabolism enzyme affects about 40 percent of the East Asian population, and many people of East Asian descent throughout the world.

(Alcohol Could be Toxic and Cause DNA Damage for Some People, NIH, US)

Issue associated with an undesirable descent of a device component due to the force of gravity, usually from a higher to a lower level, usually the ground or floor.

(Fall of Medical Device Component, Food and Drug Administration)