Word.ws English Dictionary

declivity

UK/dɪˈklɪvɪti/

declivity noun: the downward slope of a curve.

declivity: the downward slope of a curve
Image: Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

declivity (plural declivities)

  1. The downward slope of a curve.
    • The Declivity was ſo ſmall, that I walked near a mile before I got to the Shore, which I conjectur'd was about eight a-clock in the Evening.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s...
    • The velocity of flowing waters is very far from being in proportion to the quantity of declivity in their bed: […] .1780, Theodore Augustine Mann, A Treatise on Rivers and Canals, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Volume 69: For the Year 1779, Part II, 582
  2. A downward bend in a path.
  3. An inward curve of the exoskeleton of an insect, such as between body segments; a segment of an insect's body where the exoskeleton curves inward.
    • Males of all species have more developed armature of the elytral declivity than females (Figs. S, 6, 8, 9, 11-14).1979, Entomology Circular, Issue 200, Part 366, Division of Plant Industry, page number not shown
    • Propodeum in profile with upper lobe of declivity elongate and narrow, subspiniform, almost as long as lower lobe.2000, Barry Bolton, “The Ant Tribe Dacetini”, in American Entomological Institute, volume 65, number 2, page 500

declivity meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada

declivity in Tamil

சரிவு

declivity in Urdu

ڈھلوان, جھکاؤ

declivity in Bengali

নিম্নমুখী ঢাল

declivity in Kannada

ಇಳಿಜಾರು, ಕಂತ
More languagesFewer languages
declivity in Sanskrit
कूल kūla
declivity in Sinhala
බැස්ම bæsma

Examples of declivity in a sentence

  • […]a line was measured down the hill on the right of 420, and the angle of declivity is 23°, which shortens the line 33 links;[…].1812, John Ainslie, Comprehensive Treatise on Land Surveying, page 117:
  • A rocky cliff appeared, mounds of turned–up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others with iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations, or hanging to the declivity.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The...
  • Companion woodcut of "inclined plane on the railway from South Hetton to Seaham Harbour, showing the manner in which a loaded train of waggons pulls an empty one up the declivity"1948 May and June, “The South Hetton Railway in 1835”, in Railway Magazine, page 184, image caption:

Forms of declivity

pluraldeclivities

Origin of declivity

1610s, from French déclivité, from Latin declivitatem, dēclīvitās, from dēclivis (“a sloping downward”), from de (“down”) + clīvus (“a slope”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱleywo-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to lean”) (English lean).

Questions about declivity

What does declivity mean?
Declivity means the downward slope of a curve.
What is declivity in Tamil?
Declivity in Tamil is சரிவு. See Declivity meaning in Tamil.
How do you use declivity in a sentence?
[…]a line was measured down the hill on the right of 420, and the angle of declivity is 23°, which shortens the line 33 links;[…].
What part of speech is declivity?
Declivity is a noun.
How do you pronounce declivity?
Declivity is pronounced /dɪˈklɪvɪti/ (UK).
What is the plural of declivity?
The plural of declivity is declivities.

Words near declivity in the dictionary

  1. declipping
  2. declippings
  3. declivant
  4. declivities
  5. declivitous
  6. declivity
  7. declivous
  8. decloak
  9. decloaked
  10. decloaker
  11. decloakers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: declivity (page history and authors); declivity (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); declivity (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Declivity (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); declivity (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कूल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); බැස්ම (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “declivity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/declivity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.