decline
n. C / Un. a slow or steady change to a lower amount, quality, or power. You use it when something is becoming less successful or smaller over time.
n. a gradual and continuous loss of strength, numbers, quality, or value. Often used in academic contexts to describe historical or economic trends.
The city is seeing a decline in the number of young residents.
Economists are worried about the sharp decline in consumer spending during the last quarter of the year.
Historians often debate whether the empire's collapse was a sudden event or the result of a long, painful decline caused by internal corruption and external pressure.
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.
Often followed by the preposition 'in' when referring to the subject of the change, or 'of' when referring to the entity losing value.
a decline on the populationa decline in the populationWhen describing a reduction in a specific category or amount, use the preposition 'in' rather than 'on'.