ascend

From Middle English ascenden, borrowed from Old French ascendre, from Latin ascendō (“to go up, climb up to”), from ad (“to”) + scandō (“to climb”); see scan. Unrelated to accede other than common ad prefix.

• IPA^(key): /əˈsɛnd/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛnd
• Hyphenation: as‧cend

ascend (third-person singular simple present ascends, present participle ascending, simple past and past participle ascended)

1. (intransitive) To move upward, to fly, to soar.

   He ascended to heaven upon a cloud.

2. (intransitive) To slope in an upward direction.

   The road ascends the mountain.

3. (transitive) To go up.

   You ascend the stairs and take a right.

4. (transitive) To succeed.

   She ascended the throne when her mother abdicated.

5. (figuratively) To rise; to become higher, more noble, etc.

   Our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity.

• descend

• ascent
• ascendant
• ascendance
• ascendancy/ascendency
• ascending
• ascender
• ascension
• descend
• transcend

• climb

• ascend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ascend in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

• Dances, dances, decans, descan

ascend

1. third-person singular present indicative of ascendre