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Ascendant vs Descendant - What's the difference?

ascendant | descendant |

Descendant is a antonym of ascendant.



As adjectives the difference between ascendant and descendant

is that ascendant is rising, moving upward while descendant is descending from a biological ancestor.

As nouns the difference between ascendant and descendant

is that ascendant is being in control; superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency while descendant is one who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.

ascendant

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Rising, moving upward.
  • * Browne
    • The constellation about that time ascendant .
  • Surpassing or controlling.
  • * South
    • An ascendant spirit over him.
  • * John Stuart Mill
    • The ascendant community obtained a surplus of wealth.

    Noun

    (wikipedia ascendant) (en noun)
  • Being in control; superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency.
    • One man has the ascendant over another.
  • * Robertson
    • Chievres had acquired over the mind of the young monarch the ascendant not only of a tutor, but of a parent.
  • An ancestor (antonym of descendant)
    • (Ayliffe)
  • Ascent; height; elevation.
  • * Temple
    • Sciences that were then in their highest ascendant .
  • (astrology) The horoscope, or that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the moment of one's birth; supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's life and fortune.
    • (Burke)

    Related terms

    * ascend * ascent * ascendance * ascendancy/ascendency * ascending * ascender ----

    descendant

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • descending from a biological ancestor.
  • 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

    * descendent

    Antonyms

    * ascendant, ascendent, ascending

    Related terms

    * descendancy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (literally) One who is 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.
  • * 1993 , Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i''-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ''?''-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi and Reiner Lipp (editors), ''Comparative-Historical Linguistics , John Benjamins Publishing, ISBN 978-90-272-3598-5, page 479:
    • The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. n?s?'', ''d?nos? .

    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

    * ascendant * ancestor * forebear

    Derived terms

    * direct descendant * indirect descendant

    See also

    * offspring * offshoot * progeny ----