Meaning & use
declivity
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Meaning
nouncountableformalliterary
A piece of ground that slopes downward, such as the side of a hill or the bank of a valley.
Grammar: Takes a plural: a gentle declivity, steep declivities.
Patterns
- a declivity of something
- down a declivity
- the declivity of a hill
The path followed a gentle declivity toward the river.
Snow slid down the steep declivity and buried the road.
Sheep grazed on the declivity below the old farmhouse.
Word forms
| plural | declivities |
|---|
Common combinations
- steep declivity
- A steep declivity separated the field from the lake.
- gentle declivity
- The meadow ended in a gentle declivity.
- descend a declivity
- We carefully descended the declivity in the fading light.
- rocky declivity
- A rocky declivity made the shortcut dangerous.
- grassy declivity
- Children rolled down the grassy declivity behind the church.
Synonyms and how they differ
- slope
- Slope is the ordinary word and can go up or down, while declivity is bookish and always points downward.
- descent
- Descent can mean the act of going down as well as the ground itself, whereas declivity names only the sloping ground.
- incline
- Incline is neutral about direction and common in engineering, while declivity is literary and always downhill.
- gradient
- Gradient emphasizes the measured steepness, as on roads and railways, while declivity names the downward ground in descriptive writing.
Opposites
Word family
- acclivity noun
- an upward slope, the opposite of declivity
- declivitous adjective
- sloping steeply downward (rare)
- proclivity noun
- a natural tendency toward something, from the same Latin root
Commonly confused: declivity or proclivity?
declivity vs proclivity
Proclivity is a tendency or habit, as in a proclivity for risk, and has nothing to do with ground; declivity is a physical downward slope.
Practice
Which word would a writer most likely use for the downward side of a hill in a formal, descriptive passage?
Choose one answer.
Declivity is a downward slope of land. Proclivity looks similar but means a tendency, and gradient measures steepness rather than naming the ground itself.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “declivity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.