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descendant. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
descendant, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
descendant in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
descendant you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English dessendaunte, borrowed from Middle French, from Latin dēscendēns, present participle of descendere, from dē + scandere (“to climb, ascend”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dɪˈsɛndənt/
- Hyphenation: des‧cen‧dant
Adjective
descendant (not comparable)
- Descending; going down.
The elevator resumed its descendant trajectory.
1830, Thomas Robson (engraver.), The British herald, or Cabinet of armorial bearings of the nobility & gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, page 14:Eagle descendant, or descending. See DESCENDANT, and Pl. 22, fig. 6. Eagle descendant, displayed. See Pl. 22, fig. 7. Eagle displayed, recursant. See DISPLAYED RECURSANT, and Pl. 22, […]
1984, Charles A. Ravenstein, Air Force combat wings: lineage and honors histories 1947-1977, DIANE Publishing, →ISBN, page 259:Azure, surmounting a cloud argent, an American eagle descendant, wings endorsed proper, between his beak four lightning streaks, […]
- Descending from a biological ancestor.
Power in the kingdom is transferred in a descendant manner.
- Proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.
Usage notes
The adjective may be spelled either with ant or ent as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ant.
Alternative forms
Antonyms
Related terms
Translations
descending from (an ancestor)
Noun
descendant (plural descendants)
- One of the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.
The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.
- (figuratively) A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.
- (biology) A later evolutionary type.
Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
- (linguistics) A language that is descended from another.
English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
- (linguistics) A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
- Synonyms: reflex, derivative
- Antonym: etymon
- Coordinate term: cognate
1993, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ē-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi, Reiner Lipp, editors, Comparative-Historical Linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 479:The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.
- (astrology) The intersection of the western (setting) horizon and the ecliptic, its ecliptical longitude; the astrological sign it corresponds to.
Usage notes
The adjective may be spelled either with ant or ent as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ant.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
one who is the progeny of someone
- Afrikaans: afstammeling
- Albanian: pasardhës (sq) n
- Arabic: سَلِيل m (salīl)
- Armenian: հետնորդ (hy) (hetnord), ժառանգ (hy) (žaṙang), սերունդ (hy) (serund)
- Belarusian: нашча́дак m (naščádak), нашча́дніца f (naščádnica), пато́мак m (patómak)
- Bengali: আওলাদ (bn) (aōlad), ফরজন্দ (bn) (phorjondo)
- Bulgarian: пото́мък (bg) m (potómǎk)
- Catalan: descendent (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 後裔/后裔 (hau6 jeoi6), 子孫/子孙 (zi2 syun1), 後嗣/后嗣 (hau6 zi6), 兒孫/儿孙 (ji4 syun1), 後代/后代 (hau6 doi6)
- Hokkien: 後裔/后裔 (hō͘-è), 囝孫/囝孙 (zh-min-nan) (kiáⁿ-sun), 後嗣/后嗣 (zh-min-nan) (hiō-sū, hiō-sû, hō͘-sû, āu-sû), 裔孫/裔孙 (è-sun), 後代/后代 (zh-min-nan) (āu-tāi, hiō-tāi)
- Mandarin: 後裔/后裔 (zh) (hòuyì), 子孫/子孙 (zh) (zǐsūn), 後嗣/后嗣 (zh) (hòusì), 兒孫/儿孙 (zh) (érsūn), 後代/后代 (zh) (hòudài)
- Czech: potomek (cs) m, potomkyně f
- Danish: efterkommer c, afkom (da) n
- Dutch: afstammeling (nl) m, nakomeling (nl) m, nazaat (nl) m, telg (nl) m
- Esperanto: posteulo (eo), ido (eo)
- Estonian: järglane
- Ewe: dzidzimevi n
- Finnish: jälkeläinen (fi)
- French: descendant (fr) m, descendante (fr) f
- German: Nachkomme (de) m, Nachkommin (de) f, Deszendent m, Deszendentin f, Spross (de) m, Sproß (de) m (old spelling), Sprössling (de) m, Abkomme (de) m, Abkommin f, Abkömmling (de) m, Nachfahr m, Nachfahre (de) m, Nachfahrin (de) f, Nachkömmling m, Nachwuchs (de) m
- Gothic: 𐌰𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌰 m (afara)
- Greek: απόγονος (el) m (apógonos)
- Ancient: ἐπίγονος m (epígonos)
- Hausa: zuriya (ha)
- Hebrew: צֶאֱצָא (he) m (tse'etsa)
- Hindi: वंशज (hi) m (vañśaj)
- Hungarian: leszármazott (hu)
- Icelandic: afkomandi m, niðji (is) m
- Ido: decendanto (io)
- Indonesian: keturunan (id)
- Irish: sliochtach m
- Italian: discendente (it) m
- Japanese: 子孫 (ja) (しそん, shison), 子種 (こだね, kodane), 後裔 (ja) (こうえい, kōei)
- Korean: 자손(子孫) (ko) (jason), 후예(後裔) (ko) (huye)
- Kyrgyz: тукум (ky) (tukum)
- Macedonian: потомок m (potomok)
- Malay: keturunan (ms)
- Manchu: ᠠᠮᠠᡤᠠ
ᡝᠨᡝᠨ (amaga enen)
- Maori: mokopuna, whakahekenga, mangainga, tākerekere (direct descendant)
- Norman: d'scendant m, d'scendante f
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: etterkommer (no) m
- Nynorsk: etterkomar m, etterkommar m
- Ottoman Turkish: نسل (nesl)
- Persian: فروشونده (forušavande)
- Polish: potomek (pl) m, potomkini f, zstępny (pl), descendent (pl) m
- Portuguese: descendente (pt) m or f
- Romanian: descendent (ro) m, descendentă (ro) f, urmaș (ro) m, urmașă (ro) f
- Russian: пото́мок (ru) m (potómok)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: по̀томак m
- Roman: pòtomak (sh) m
- Slovak: potomok m, potomkyňa f
- Slovene: potomec (sl) m
- Spanish: descendiente (es) m
- Swahili: mzao class 1/2
- Swedish: ättling (sv) c, avkomma (sv) c, avkomling (sv) c
- Tagalog: inanak
- Tarifit: taṛwa f
- Telugu: వారసుడు (te) (vārasuḍu), ఆనువంశీకుడు m (ānuvaṁśīkuḍu)
- Thai: ผู้สืบสันดาน (th) (pûu-sʉ̀ʉp-sǎn-daan)
- Turkish: döl (tr), neslinden olan
- Ukrainian: наща́док m (naščádok), пото́мок (uk) m (potómok)
- Welsh: disgynnydd (cy) m, disgynnyddion m pl
- Yiddish: אָפּשטאַמלינג m (opshtamling)
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which derives directly from a given precursor or source
Translations to be checked
See also
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin dēscendentem, the present participle of dēscendere, itself from dē + scandere (“climb, ascend”).
Pronunciation
Participle
descendant
- present participle of descendre
- (preceded by en) gerund of descendre
Noun
descendant m (plural descendants, feminine descendante)
- a descendant; one who is the progeny of someone at any distance of time; e.g. a child; a grandchild, etc.
Antonyms
Adjective
descendant (feminine descendante, masculine plural descendants, feminine plural descendantes)
- (which is) descending
- Antonyms: ascendant, montant
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
Latin
Verb
dēscendant
- third-person plural present active subjunctive of dēscendō