declension
(noun) a class of nouns or pronouns or adjectives in Indo-European languages having the same (or very similar) inflectional forms; “the first declension in Latin”
descent, declivity, fall, decline, declination, declension, downslope
(noun) a downward slope or bend
deterioration, decline in quality, declension, worsening
(noun) process of changing to an inferior state
declension
(noun) the inflection of nouns and pronouns and adjectives in Indo-European languages
Source: WordNet® 3.1
declension (countable and uncountable, plural declensions)
A falling off, decay or descent.
(grammar) The act of declining a word; the act of listing the inflections of a noun, pronoun or adjective in order.
(grammar) A way of categorizing nouns, pronouns, or adjectives according to the inflections they receive.
• declination
• flection, flexion, inflection, inflexion, accidence
• strong declension
• weak declension
• mixed declension
• conjugation
• indolences, insolenced, second line
Source: Wiktionary
De*clen"sion, n. Etym: [Apparently corrupted fr. F. déclinaison, fr. L. declinatio, fr. declinare. See Decline, and cf. Declination.]
1. The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope. The declension of the land from that place to the sea. T. Burnet.
2. A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc. Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension. Shak.
3. Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination.
4. (Gram.) (a) Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the grammatical cases. (b) The form of the inflection of a word declined by cases; as, the first or the second declension of nouns, adjectives, etc. (c) Rehearsing a word as declined.
Note: The nominative was held to be the primary and original form, and was likened to a perpendicular line; the variations, or oblique cases, were regarded as fallings (hence called casus, cases, or fallings) from the nominative or perpendicular; and an enumerating of the various forms, being a sort of progressive descent from the noun's upright form, was called a declension. Harris. Declension of the needle, declination of the needle.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
16 May 2025
(adjective) marked by columniation having free columns in porticoes either at both ends or at both sides of a structure
The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.
