declivity
pronunciation
How to pronounce declivity in British English:
UK [dɪ'klɪvɪtɪ]
How to pronounce declivity in American English:
US [dɪ'klɪvətɪ]
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- Noun:
- a downward slope or bend
Word Origin
- declivity (n.)
- 1610s, from French déclivité, from Latin declivitatem (nominative declivitas) "a slope, declivity," from declivis "a sloping downward," from de- "down" (see de-) + clivus "a slope," from PIE *klei-wo-, suffixed form of *klei "to lean" (see lean (v.)).
Antonym
Example
- 1. To take away this discouragement , I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth , and so make a declivity .
- 2. If the line slants downward , it is descending , or is said to have declivity , and the slope will be a negative number .
- 3. It seemed to him that he had but just waked up from some inexplicable dream , and that he found himself slipping down a declivity in the middle of the night , erect , shivering , holding back all in vain , on the very brink of the abyss .
- 4. In that fatal valley , at the foot of that declivity which the cuirassiers had ascended , now inundated by the masses of the english , under the converging fires of the victorious hostile cavalry , under a frightful density of projectiles , this square fought on .