descend

Everyday

1. To descend is to go or come down, or to move downwards. tree →
2. To be descended from someone means to come from them in your family history (to be their great-great-grandchild, and so on). tree →
3. To descend on a place means to arrive there suddenly in large numbers. tree →

In the lessons

In maths, descending order means from the biggest to the smallest (9, 7, 4, 2). In science and geography, planes descend to land and climbers descend a mountain. In history and family trees, people are descended from their ancestors. Phrases: descend the stairs, descending order, be descended from, descend on.

Examples

• The plane began to descend towards the airport. tree →
• We carefully descended the steep hill. tree →
• Put these numbers in descending order: 3, 8, 5. tree →
• She is descended from a family of sailors. tree →
• Night descended on the town. tree →
• Hundreds of fans descended on the stadium. tree →
• The divers descended to the bottom of the lake. tree →
• She then descended from the chariot and made her reverence. tree →

Note

Regular verb: descended, descending. Noun: descent (going down) and descendant (a person in your family who comes after you). Spelling: «sc» in the middle: de-SCEND. Opposite: ascend. Maths trap: ascending order is smallest to biggest; descending is biggest to smallest.

In Jewish tradition

In these verses it is used of God coming down in a cloud, and of angels going down Jacob's ladder.

Interpretation. Tradition does not take God's "descending" literally, since God has no body. It reads it as God drawing near to people, as at Sinai and the Tent of Meeting.

Examples

• And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. (Torah EXO.34.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• And it came to pass, when Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent; and the LORD spoke with Moses. (Torah EXO.33.9, JPS 1917) tree →
• And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (Torah GEN.28.12, JPS 1917) tree →
• Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended? (Writings PRO.30.4, JPS 1917) tree →
• For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away; his wealth shall not descend after him. (Writings PSA.49.18, JPS 1917) tree →
• And it shall hail, in the downfall of the forest; but the city shall descend into the valley. (Prophets ISA.32.19, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Regular verb: descended, descending. Noun: descent (going down) and descendant (a person in your family who comes after you). Spelling: «sc» in the middle: de-SCEND. Opposite: ascend. Maths trap: ascending order is smallest to biggest; descending is biggest to smallest.

Early Modern English

Meaning

To go or come down, or to fall. tree →

Then and now

Today it means going down. In the Sefer Yetzirah sentence it means coming forth from a source, which is an old sense.

Examples

• And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. (Torah EXO.34.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• "To-morrow the sun will shine, or the rain descend. (Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen) tree →
• This way of thinking about language imbues the Hebrew root itself with a certain metaphysical reality, an entity from which more concrete instantions of individual words may ontologically descend and ultimately crystallize into concrete speech or material reality. (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation) tree →

Note

Today: come down, fall; come from.