ascending
/əˈsɛn.dɪŋ/adjective, noun, verb
ascending is spelled A-S-C-E-N-D-I-N-G: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,336th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, ascending means “Rising or increasing to higher levels, values, or degrees. (e.g. of a sequence)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ascending?
| Letters | 9: A-S-C-E-N-D-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.0 times per million words; the 19,336th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is ascending?
Ascending appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,336th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ascending?
- /əˈsɛn.dɪŋ/
Ascending has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ascending.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ascending
- ascendings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ascending mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Rising or increasing to higher levels, values, or degrees. (e.g. of a sequence)
Please arrange these numbers in an ascending order.
- 2
That causes a sequence to follow an ascending order.
We used an ascending sort.
- 3
Leading or sloping upwards.
noun
- 1
An ascent.
continual ascendings and descendings
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of ascend
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ascending in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ascending come from?
From ascend + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).