decline
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to become smaller, fewer, or less in quality.
v.to gradually become less, smaller, or weaker. Intransitive in this sense.
Simple“The number of people living in the village has declined over the last ten years.”
In context“The local manufacturing industry has declined significantly as global trade patterns shifted toward digital services.”
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to politely say no to an invitation, offer, or request.
v.to refuse to accept or do something, typically in a formal or polite manner.
Simple“I offered him a lift to the station, but he declined because he wanted to walk.”
In context“The minister declined to comment on the ongoing investigation, citing the need for confidentiality until the final report is published.”
- 03 C2 Proficiency
v.to change the ending of a word to show its grammatical role in a sentence.
v.to inflect a noun, pronoun, or adjective for case, number, or gender.
Simple“In Latin, you must decline nouns to show if they are the subject or the object.”
In context“The student struggled to correctly decline the third-declension nouns during the advanced grammar examination.”
UsageThe verb takes a noun phrase as its object, usually the word or category being inflected.
Teacher's tipThis is a technical term used in linguistics; students of Latin, German, or Greek will be familiar with the concept.
Synonymsinflect - 04 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a gradual decrease in the quality, amount, or importance of something.
n.a gradual and continuous loss of strength, numbers, quality, or value.
Simple“There has been a sharp decline in the price of electric cars recently.”
In context“The sudden decline in biodiversity within the national park has prompted urgent calls for stricter environmental protections.”
UsageOften used with the preposition 'in'.
- 05 C1 Advanced
n.a physical slope that goes downwards.
n.a downward slope or inclination, such as a hill or a road.
Simple“The road has a steep decline, so drivers should use their brakes carefully.”
In context“The hikers found the long decline into the valley much harder on their knees than the initial climb had been.”
Usage decline in · general decline · gradual decline
“Much of that decline is likely caused by public health policies and public messaging about the harms of smoking.”
“Other studies show that academic outcomes fall when funding declines .”
From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from dē- (“down”) + clīnō (“to bend, to incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways in Middle English: * The grammatical sense came from Old English declīnian, which was borrowed directly from the Latin etymon. * All senses except the grammatical sense were derived from those of Old French decliner. Old French itself borrowed the verb from Latin.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.