Declivity
[də-KLIV-ə-dee]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: Latin, early 17th century
1.
A downward slope.
Examples of Declivity in a sentence
"The landscape architect designed the garden to complement the natural declivity."
"There was no longer a creek, but the bridge still spanned over a large declivity."
About Declivity
Does your friend Clive know his name means “slope”? Thanks to this Latin root, declivity means a downward slope. But if you’re walking the opposite direction, acclivity means an upward slope. Coming or going, it’s all a matter of perspective.
Did you Know?
Have you ever described someone as having a proclivity for hard work? Proclivity and declivity share the same Latin root, “clivus,” meaning slope. And technically the prefixes “pro” and “de” both mean down, but the usages of each word are different. Proclivity is to have a tendency toward, and declivity means a physical downward slope.
