'Declension' definitions:
Definition of 'declension'
(from WordNet)
noun
The inflection of nouns and pronouns and adjectives in Indo-European languages
noun
Process of changing to an inferior state [syn: deterioration, decline in quality, declension, worsening]
noun
A downward slope or bend [syn: descent, declivity, fall, decline, declination, declension, downslope] [ant: acclivity, ascent, climb, raise, rise, upgrade]
noun
A class of nouns or pronouns or adjectives in Indo-European languages having the same (or very similar) inflectional forms; "the first declension in Latin"
Definition of 'Declension'
From: GCIDE
- Declension \De*clen"sion\, n. [Apparently corrupted fr. F. d['e]clinaison, fr. L. declinatio, fr. declinare. See Decline, and cf. Declination.]
- 1. The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope. [1913 Webster]
- The declension of the land from that place to the sea. --T. Burnet. [1913 Webster]
- 2. A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc. [1913 Webster]
- Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination. [1913 Webster]
- 4. (Gram.) (a) Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the grammatical cases. (b) The form of the inflection of a word declined by cases; as, the first or the second declension of nouns, adjectives, etc. (c) Rehearsing a word as declined. [1913 Webster]
- Note: The nominative was held to be the primary and original form, and was likened to a perpendicular line; the variations, or oblique cases, were regarded as fallings (hence called casus, cases, or fallings) from the nominative or perpendicular; and an enumerating of the various forms, being a sort of progressive descent from the noun's upright form, was called a declension. --Harris. [1913 Webster]
- Declension of the needle, declination of the needle. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'declension'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- abnegation,
- accidence,
- affix,
- affixation,
- allomorph,
- bound morpheme,
- cascade,
- catabasis,
- cataract,
- chute,
- collapse,
- comedown,
- conjugation,
- contradiction,
- crash,
- cutting,
- debacle,
- debasement,
- decadence,
- decadency,
- deceleration,
- declination,
- declinature,
- decline,
- decline and fall,
- declining,
- decrescendo,
- defluxion,
- deformation,
- degeneracy,
- degenerateness,
- degeneration,
- degradation,
- demotion,
- denial,
- depravation,
- depravedness,
- depreciation,
- deprivation,
- derivation,
- derogation,
- descending,
- descension,
- descent,
- deterioration,
- devolution,
- difference of form,
- dilapidation,
- diminuendo,
- disagreement,
- disallowance,
- disclaimer,
- disclamation,
- disobedience,
- dissent,
- dive,
- down,
- downbend,
- downcome,
- downcurve,
- downfall,
- downflow,
- downgrade,
- downpour,
- downrush,
- downtrend,
- downturn,
- downward mobility,
- downward trend,
- drop,
- dropping,
- dwindling,
- dying,
- ebb,
- effeteness,
- enclitic,
- fading,
- failing,
- fall,
- falling,
- falling-off,
- formative,
- free form,
- gravitation,
- holding back,
- IC analysis,
- immediate constituent analysis,
- inclination,
- infix,
- infixation,
- inflection,
- involution,
- lapse,
- loss of tone,
- morph,
- morpheme,
- morphemic analysis,
- morphemics,
- morphology,
- morphophonemics,
- nay,
- negation,
- negative,
- negative answer,
- nix,
- no,
- nonacceptance,
- noncompliance,
- nonconsent,
- nonobservance,
- paradigm,
- plummeting,
- plunge,
- pounce,
- prefix,
- prefixation,
- proclitic,
- radical,
- rapids,
- recantation,
- refusal,
- regression,
- rejection,
- remission,
- repudiation,
- retention,
- retreat,
- retrocession,
- retrogradation,
- retrogression,
- root,
- ruination,
- slippage,
- slowdown,
- slump,
- stem,
- stoop,
- subsidence,
- suffix,
- suffixation,
- swoop,
- theme,
- thumbs-down,
- turndown,
- unwillingness,
- wane,
- waterfall,
- withholding,
- word-formation