descendant
Syllables: des·cen·dantUK/dɪˈsɛndənt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/dɪˈsendənt/
descendant adjective: descending; going down.
Adjective
descendant (not comparable)
- Descending; going down.
- The elevator resumed its descendant trajectory.
- Eagle descendant, or descending. See DESCENDANT, and Pl. 22, fig. 6. Eagle descendant, displayed. See Pl. 22, fig. 7. Eagle displayed, recursant. See DISPLAYED RECURSANT, and Pl. 22, […]1830, Thomas Robson (engraver.), The British herald, or Cabinet of armorial bearings of the nobility & gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, page 14
- Descending from a biological ancestor.
- Power in the kingdom is transferred in a descendant manner.
- Pitiable sportster, / To choose thy prey so humbly, to seduce / A beggar wench who hath not the high pride / Descendant still from kingly ancestors, / To keep her royal place.1892, Arthur Dillon, Gods and Men, page 214
- Proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.
Noun
descendant (plural descendants)
- 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
- The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.
- Synonyms:
- afterbear
- Antonyms:
- ancestor, progenitor, forefather, foremother
- A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
- This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.
- A later evolutionary type.
- Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
- A language that is descended from another.
- English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
- A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
- The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.1993, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ē-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi, Reiner Lipp, editors, Comparative-Historical Linguistics, John Benjamins...
- Synonyms:
- reflex, derivative
- Antonyms:
- etymon
- The intersection of the western (setting) horizon and the ecliptic, its ecliptical longitude; the astrological sign it corresponds to.
descendant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
descendant in Hindi
- descending from (an ancestor)
- वंशज vañśaj
- one who is the progeny of someone
- वंशज vañśaj
descendant in Tamil
- சந்ததி, பரம்பரை
descendant in Urdu
- descendant, heir, progeny
- ونشج vanśaj
- descendant
- اولاد aulād
- a descendant, child
- سنتان santān
descendant in Bengali
- one who is the progeny of someone
- আওলাদ aōlad, ফরজন্দ phorjondo
More languagesFewer languages
- descendant in Telugu
- వారసుడు vārasuḍu, ఆనువంశీకుడు ānuvaṁśīkuḍu
- descendant in Malayalam
- പിൻതുടർച്ചക്കാരൻ, സന്തതി, അനന്തരഗാമി, വംശജൻ
- descendant in Kannada
- ವಂಶಸ್ಥ, ವಂಶಜ, ಸಂತತಿಯವ
- descendant in Punjabi
- ਵਾਰਸ vāras
- descendant in Gujarati
- વંશજ vañśaj
- descendant in Odia
- ଚେର cera, ଜନିମା janimā
- descendant in Sanskrit
- नप्तृ náptṛ, नपात् nápāt
- descendant in Tagalog
- inanak
- descendant in Arabic
- سَلِيل salīl
- descendant in Malay
- keturunan
- descendant in Indonesian
- keturunan
- descendant in Persian
- فروشونده forušavande
- descendant in Thai
- ผู้สืบสันดาน pûu-sʉ̀ʉp-sǎn-daan
- descendant in Vietnamese
- hậu bối
Examples of descendant in a sentence
- a lineal descendant of Charlemagne
- Azure, surmounting a cloud argent, an American eagle descendant, wings endorsed proper, between his beak four lightning streaks, […]1984, Charles A. Ravenstein, Air Force combat wings: lineage and honors histories 1947-1977, DIANE Publishing, →ISBN, page 259:
Synonyms of descendant
Antonyms
Forms of descendant
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | descendent |
| Noun | |
| plural | descendants |
Origin of descendant
From Middle English dessendaunte, borrowed from Middle French, from Latin dēscendēns, present participle of descendere, from dē + scandere (“to climb, ascend”).
Words formed from descendant
- Afrodescendant
- descendantless
- direct descendant
- indirect descendant
- nondescendant
Words that rhyme with descendant
Questions about descendant
- What does descendant mean?
- Descendant means descending; going down.
- What is descendant in Hindi?
- Descendant in Hindi is वंशज (vañśaj). See Descendant meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use descendant in a sentence?
- a lineal descendant of Charlemagne
- What part of speech is descendant?
- Descendant can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce descendant?
- Descendant is pronounced /dɪˈsɛndənt/ (UK).
Words near descendant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: descendant (page history and authors); descendant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اولاد (Urdu) (page history and authors); descendant (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); descendant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਵਾਰਸ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); વંશજ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଚେର (Odia) (page history and authors); नपात् (Sanskrit) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Yangolin-descendent.wav.
Cite this entry: “descendant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/descendant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.