Word.ws English Dictionary

receding

receding is the present participle and gerund of recede.

Noun

receding (plural recedings)

  1. The action of something that recedes.
    • the great overflowings and recedings of the waters1829, Josiah Conder, The Modern Traveler, page 205
  2. A recessed part.
    • The sombre shadows, cast by those huge houses of which it is composed, and the streams of faint light cutting the darkness here and there, where the entrance to some fantastic alley pierces the sable mass of building—the strange projectings, recedings, and windings […]1820, John Gibson Lockhart, Peter's Letters to His Kinsfolk, page 20

Meaning of recede

Verb

recede (third-person singular simple present recedes, present participle receding, simple past and past participle receded)

  1. To move back; to retreat; to withdraw.
    • Like the hollow roar / Of tides receding from th' insulted shore.1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    recur, retrocede
  2. To cede back; to grant or yield again to a former possessor.
    • to recede conquered territory
  3. To take back.

Adjective

receding (comparative more receding, superlative most receding)

  1. Going or moving back or further away from a previous position; gradually diminishing.
    • a receding hairline

Forms of receding

Adjective
comparativemore receding
superlativemost receding
Noun
pluralrecedings

Words formed from receding

Words that rhyme with receding

23 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about receding

What does receding mean?
Receding means going or moving back or further away from a previous position; gradually diminishing.
What is receding the present participle and gerund of?
Receding is the present participle and gerund of recede.
What part of speech is receding?
Receding can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near receding in the dictionary

  1. recedent
  2. receder
  3. receders
  4. recedes
  5. recedeth
  6. receding
  7. recedingly
  8. recedingness
  9. recedings
  10. receed
  11. receipt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: receding (page history and authors); recede (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: “receding.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/receding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.