Descend: Going Down, and Coming From Ancestors
To descend is to move downwards. It also means to be related to an ancestor, and to arrive somewhere unwanted in large numbers.
Descend means to go down. The family sense uses the same picture: a family tree is drawn with ancestors at the top, so being descended from someone is a matter of coming down the page.
- To move downwards. *The path descends steeply.*
- To be related to an ancestor. *She is descended from a Welsh family.*
- To arrive in numbers. *Reporters descended on the village.*
- To sink to poor behaviour. *The debate descended into name-calling.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | descend | Descend the stairs. |
| Noun | descent | A steep descent. |
| Person | descendant | A direct descendant. |
| Adjective | descending | In descending order. |
| Opposite | ascend | Ascend the tower. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The aircraft began to descend.The plain physical sense.
- He is descended from Huguenot refugees.Always in the passive for ancestry.
- The meeting descended into chaos.Descend into — deteriorate.
Descendant or descendent?
- Descendant — the noun, a person who descends from an ancestor
- Descendent — an adjective meaning descending, and rare
- In practice, use descendant with an a for the person
- The same pair exists for dependant and dependent in British English
- American English simplifies both to the e spelling
From Latin *descendere*, from *de* (down) and *scandere*, to climb. The same *scandere* gives ascend, transcend and scan — the last because Latin scanning of verse involved climbing through the metre foot by foot.
Descend from or descended from?
For ancestry, use the passive: *she is descended from*. *She descends from* is grammatical but sounds odd.
Descend or go down?
Go down is the everyday phrase. Descend is more formal, and standard in aviation, mountaineering and formal writing.