ascend
English
Etymology
From Middle English ascenden, borrowed from Old French ascendre, from Latin ascendō (“to go up, climb up to”), from ad (“to”) + scandō (“to climb”); see scan. Unrelated to accede other than common ad prefix.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈsɛnd/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛnd
- Hyphenation: as‧cend
Verb
ascend (third-person singular simple present ascends, present participle ascending, simple past and past participle ascended)
- (intransitive) To move upward, to fly, to soar.
- He ascended to heaven upon a cloud.
- (intransitive) To slope in an upward direction.
- (transitive) To go up.
- You ascend the stairs and take a right.
- (transitive, intransitive) To succeed a ruler on (the throne).
- She ascended the throne when her mother abdicated.
- She ascended to the throne when her mother abdicated.
- (intransitive, figurative) To rise; to become higher, more noble, etc.
- To trace, search or go backwards temporally (e.g., through records, genealogies, routes, etc.).
- Our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity.
- (transitive, music) To become higher in pitch.
- (incel slang) To lose one's virginity, especially of a man through unpaid and consensual sexual intercourse with a woman.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to fly, to soar
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to slope in an upward direction
to go up
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See also
Further reading
- “ascend”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “ascend”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
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