descender

From descend +‎ -er (agent noun suffix).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛndə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

descender (plural descenders)

1. A person or thing that descends.

   Coordinate term: ascender

2. (typography) The part of a letter or number that is drawn below the baseline (the bottom of most lowercase letters).

   Synonym: tail

   Coordinate term: ascender

3. (typography, uncommon) A letter that has such a portion, such as g, j, or in some fonts Q.

   Coordinate term: ascender

4. (cycling) A cyclist who excels at fast descents.
5. (climbing) A belay device used in rock climbing, or as a fire escape.

• redescend

• decender (obsolete)

From Old Galician-Portuguese decender, borrowed from Latin dēscendere. Compare descer, probably an inherited doublet.

descender (first-person singular present descendo, first-person singular preterite descendi, past participle descendido)

1. (intransitive) to descend (to pass from a higher to a lower place)
2. (genealogy, with de) to descend (from) (to have as an ancestor)
3. (etymology, with de) to descend (from) (to have as an etymon)

• (to go down): descer, baixar

• ascender
• condescender
• descendente

• “descender”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “descender”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Inherited from Old Spanish decender, decendir, borrowed from Latin dēscendere. Compare also the Old Spanish form deçir, which was likely inherited from the same source.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /desθenˈdeɾ/ [d̪es.θẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ] (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• IPA^(key): /desenˈdeɾ/ [d̪e.sẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ] (Latin America, Philippines)

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: des‧cen‧der

descender (first-person singular present desciendo, first-person singular preterite descendí, past participle descendido)

1. to descend

• “descender”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025