descendant
des·cen·dant/dɪˈsɛndənt/adjective, noun
descendant is spelled D-E-S-C-E-N-D-A-N-T, 3 syllables: des·cen·dant. The wrong spelling people search most is decendant: about 200 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Descendant is an adjective meaning “Descending; going down”.
How many letters and syllables are in descendant?
| Letters | 10: D-E-S-C-E-N-D-A-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: des·cen·dant |
| In writing | 2.0 times per million words; the 19,589th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, decendant, about 200 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| 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 descendant?
Descendant is spelled D-E-S-C-E-N-D-A-N-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for descendant in either form.
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 descendant?
Descendant appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th 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 descendant?
- US /dɪˈsɛndənt/
- Australia /dɪˈsendənt/
Descendant has 3 syllables, split des·cen·dant in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Yangolin-descendent.wav, En-us-descendant.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with descendant
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: descendent.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with descendant?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as descendant from its last stressed vowel (/ɛndənt/):
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 descendant
- descendent
- descendants plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does descendant mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Descending; going down.
The elevator resumed its descendant trajectory.
- 2
Descending from a biological ancestor.
Power in the kingdom is transferred in a descendant manner.
- 3
Proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.
noun
- 1
One of the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.
Meronyms: issue, line, progeny; family; clan
- 2
A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.
- 3
A later evolutionary type.
Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
- 4
A language that is descended from another.
English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
- 5
A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
- 6
The intersection of the western (setting) horizon and the ecliptic, its ecliptical longitude; the astrological sign it corresponds to.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Descendant in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | postremo, descendiente |
| French | descendant, descendante |
| German | Nachkomme, Nachkommin, Deszendent, Deszendentin, Spross, Sproß |
| Portuguese | descendente |
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 descendant come from?
From Middle English dessendaunte, borrowed from Middle French, from Latin dēscendēns, present participle of descendere, from dē + scandere (“to climb, ascend”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What to look up after descendant
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