descending
/dɪˈsɛn.dɪŋ/adjective, noun, verb
descending is spelled D-E-S-C-E-N-D-I-N-G: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, descending means “Moving or sloping downwards” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in descending?
| Letters | 10: D-E-S-C-E-N-D-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,731st 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 descending?
Descending 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 descending?
- /dɪˈsɛn.dɪŋ/
Descending 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)-I_learned_some_phrases-descending.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of descending
- descendings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does descending mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Moving or sloping downwards.
- 2
Ordered such that each element is less than or equal to the previous element. (of a sequence)
Please arrange these numbers in a descending order.
- 3
Causing a sequence to follow a descending order.
We used a descending sort.
- 4
Becoming lower in pitch.
noun
- 1
A descent.
continual ascendings and descendings
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of descend
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Descending in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense moving or sloping downwards:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | 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 descending come from?
From descend + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).