{
    "term": "descent",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox5000": true,
    "cefr": "c1",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "an action of coming or going down",
            "labels": "(figurative)(figurative)",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The plane began its descent to Heathrow."
                },
                {
                    "text": "the country’s swift descent into anarchy"
                },
                {
                    "text": "I made a slow and painful descent down the stairs."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The engines failed on the plane's descent to Newark."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The plane was making its final descent so we had to fasten our seat belts."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The space capsule used parachutes to slow its descent."
                },
                {
                    "text": "They began the difficult descent of the mountain's south face."
                },
                {
                    "text": "We slowed the balloon's rate of descent."
                },
                {
                    "text": "his descent into alcoholism"
                },
                {
                    "text": "the descent from the top of the mountain"
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Transport by air"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["fast", "rapid", "swift"],
                "verb + descent": ["make", "begin", "start"],
                "preposition": [
                    "during a/​the descent",
                    "on a/​the descent",
                    "descent down"
                ],
                "phrases": ["a rate of descent"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "a slope going downwards",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "There is a gradual descent to the sea."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["gentle", "steep"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 3,
            "definition": "a person’s family origins",
            "sensetop": "descent from somebody",
            "cefr": "c2",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "to be of Scottish descent"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He traces his line of descent from the Stuart kings.",
                    "contextForm": "descent from somebody"
                },
                {
                    "text": "She claims direct descent from Queen Victoria."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Humans and other apes followed separate lines of descent from a common ancestor."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She is Hungarian by descent."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She is of mixed European and African descent."
                },
                {
                    "text": "groups sharing a common descent"
                },
                {
                    "text": "people of West Indian descent"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Most European languages have a common descent."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["History", "Family and relationships"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["direct", "lineal", "common"],
                "verb + descent": ["claim", "have", "trace"],
                "preposition": ["by descent", "descent from"],
                "phrases": ["a line of descent", "of Mexican, Scottish, etc. descent"]
            }
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/dɪˈsent/",
                "audio": "de/descent/descent__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/dɪˈsent/",
                "audio": "de/descent/descent__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Middle English: from Old French descente, from descendre ‘to descend’, from Latin descendere, from de- ‘down’ + scandere ‘to climb’."
}