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declension

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(dē klen′s̸hən, di-)

noun

a bending or sloping downward; slope; descent
a falling off or away; decline, deterioration
Origin: from the concept of cases as “declining” from the nominative: cf. case,
Gram.
1. a class of nouns, pronouns, or adjectives having the same or a similar system of inflections to show case
2. the inflection of nouns, pronouns, or adjectives

Origin: ME declenson < OFr declinaison < L declinatio, a bending aside, inflection (< pp. of declinare: see decline): ME form infl. by assoc. with L descensio, a descending: see descend

See declension in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

Linguistics
a. In certain languages, the inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in categories such as case, number, and gender.
b. A class of words of one language with the same or a similar system of inflections, such as the first declension in Latin.
A descending slope; a descent.
A decline or decrease; deterioration: “States and empires have their periods of declension” (Laurence Sterne).
A deviation, as from a standard or practice.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English declenson

Origin: , from Old French declinaison

Origin: , from Latin dēclīnātiō, dēclīnātiōn-, grammatical declension, declination; see declination

Related Forms: