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descend

[dih-send] / dɪˈsɛnd /


VERB
trace ancestry from; be passed or handed down
Synonyms
Antonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Watching a loved one descend into dementia is an extremely upsetting, traumatic and powerless place to be.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026

Neither Washington nor Brasília wants Venezuela to descend into chaos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

The discovery raises new questions about how heat is distributed inside Earth and how tectonic plates behave as they descend.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026

Whitney after they failed to descend the mountain and reunite with a hiking companion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

“Not if they shoot it with a hypno-dart and descend by rope ladder from a hovering hovercar,” Rick said.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

Each September, a who's who of executives from across Silicon Valley descends on San Francisco's Palace Hotel to charm investors at a conference hosted by the investment bank Goldman Sachs.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

Every living animal ultimately descends from a common ancestor that existed more than 600 million years ago.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

Jack Tucker descends from the rafters inside L.A.’s Montalbán Theatre like a kamikaze crash landing into his big moment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

As firefighters in southwest France struggle to bring a forest inferno under control before yet another heatwave descends on the country, Filippi told AFP about the phenomenon.

From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026

A mob of reporters descends on our bodyguards as we flee the arena toward our waiting cars, and suddenly I can’t see anything but a field of flashing lights and microphones.

From "Warcross" by Marie Lu

England edged towards a World Cup exit after their points chase against Papua New Guinea descended into a chaotic and error-strewn 34-12 victory that will almost certainly prove insufficient in the final reckoning.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

By recognizing the surviving fragments of these ancient structures, scientists can better reconstruct how tectonic plates descended beneath one another, how volcanic arcs shifted, how continental crust grew, and how once-vast oceans eventually closed.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026

At another company’s event in Nashville this spring, Scott Stevens was among dozens of fund managers who descended on a luxury hotel to pitch wealthy investors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

The demonstration -- one of Serbia's largest in decades -- descended into panic after a mysterious noise sent crowds fleeing, fuelling claims that police had used a "sound cannon" -- an allegation authorities deny.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

The sky darkened as the flock of birds descended.

From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown

Those changes may have included slab rollback, a process in which a descending tectonic plate retreats as it sinks into Earth's interior, as well as the migration of volcanic arcs to new locations.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026

Hundreds of thousands of high school and university students have rallied in France, Italy, Spain and other European countries in recent weeks, with some protests descending into violence.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

Below is a list of every club to whom Manchester City paid transfer fees between summer 2009 and winter 2018, in descending order from the most money to the least.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

In late August, on a trip to Kyrgyzstan for a regional summit, a widely shared clip showed him descending an airplane’s stairs slowly and stiffly, gripping the hand of his wife, Peng Liyuan.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

Bull had started down the slope now, his boards out, and he was descending, alive, alive, adrenaline reinforcing every platelet, every blood cell, and his mind radiating with its response to danger.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy


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