descent

Từ điển Oxford Advanced Learner 8th

des·cent [descent descents] BrE [dɪˈsent] NAmE [dɪˈsent] noun (formal)
1. countable, usually singular an action of coming or going down
•The plane began its descent to Heathrow.
• (figurative)the country's swift descent into anarchy
Opp: ↑ascent
2. countable a slope going downwards
•There is a gradual descent to the sea.
Opp: ↑ascent
3. uncountable a person's family origins
Syn: ↑ancestry
•to be of Scottish descent
•~ from sb He traces his line of descent from the Stuart kings.

Word Origin:
Middle English: from Old French descente, from descendre ‘to descend’, from Latin descendere, from de- ‘down’ + scandere ‘to climb’.

Example Bank:
•Humans and other apes followed separate lines of descent from a common ancestor.
•I made a slow and painful descent down the stairs.
•Most European languages have a common descent.
•She claims direct descent from Queen Victoria.
•She is Hungarian by descent.
•She is of mixed European and African descent.
•The engines failed on the plane's descent to Newark.
•The plane began its gentle descent to Heathrow.
•The plane was making its final descent so we had to fasten our seat belts.
•The space capsule used parachutes to slow its descent.
•They began the difficult descent of the mountain's south face.
•We slowed the balloon's rate of descent.
•groups sharing common descent
•his descent into alcoholism
•the descent from the top of the mountain
•people of West Indian descent

• Từ đồng nghĩa / Synonyms:
  declivity, fall, decline, declination, declension, downslope, line of descent, lineage, filiation, origin, extraction
• Từ trái nghĩa / Antonyms:
  ascent, acclivity, rise, raise, climb, upgrade