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PlainSpell

descend

de·scend/dəˈsɛnd/verb

descend is spelled D-E-S-C-E-N-D, 2 syllables: de·scend. The wrong spelling people search most is decend: about 280 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Descend is a verb meaning “To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something, such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along…”.

How many letters and syllables are in descend?

Letters7: D-E-S-C-E-N-D
Syllables2: de·scend
In writing3.2 times per million words; the 14,731st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, decend, about 280 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell descend?

Descend is spelled D-E-S-C-E-N-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for descend in either form.

descendthe right spelling660 searches a month
decenda missing s280 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is descend?

Descend appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st 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 descend?

  • UK /dɪˈsɛnd/
  • US /dəˈsɛnd/
  • US /dɪˈsɛnd/

Descend has 2 syllables, split de·scend in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Arlo_Barnes-descend.wav, En-us-descend.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with descend?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as descend from its last stressed vowel (/ɛnd/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of descend

  • descends present, singular, he/she/it
  • descending participle, present
  • descended participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does descend mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something, such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon.

    they descended the river in boats

  2. 2

    Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a hill, a slope, etc.).

    They took the steep path that descends the hill down to the beach.

  3. 3

    archaicTo move (someone or something) from a higher to a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down.

  4. 4

    To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink.

  5. 5

    Of a zodiac sign: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, of a planet: to move to a place where it has less astrological significance.

  6. 6

    Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.

  7. 7

    Of a body part: to move downwards, especially during development of the embryo; specifically, of the testes of a mammal: to move downwards from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum.

    Cryptorchidism is the failure of one or both testes to descend into the scrotum.

  8. 8

    obsoleteOf a liquid substance: to distil out from another substance and gather at the bottom of a container; also, to distil a substance to obtain another liquid substance in this manner.

noun

  1. 1

    archaicSynonym of descent (“instance of descending; sloping incline or passage; way down; decline, etc.”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Descend in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdescendre (to pass from a higher to a lower part of…)
Germanhinuntergehen (to pass from a higher to a lower part of…), absteigen, herabsteigen, herunterkommen, niedergehen (to physically move or pass from a higher to a…), abstammen (of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a…)
Portuguesedescer (to pass from a higher to a lower part of…), descender (to physically move or pass from a higher to a…), baixar, abaixar (to move (someone or something) from a higher to…)
Spanishdescender (to pass from a higher to a lower part of…)

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.

What to look up after descend