declension : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: declension	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for declension
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
declension n the inflection of nouns and pronouns and adjectives in Indo-European languages process of changing to an inferior state Synonym(s): deterioration, decline in quality, declension, worsening a downward slope or bend Synonym(s): descent, declivity, fall, decline, declination, declension, downslope Antonym(s): acclivity, ascent, climb, raise, rise, upgrade a class of nouns or pronouns or adjectives in Indo-European languages having the same (or very similar) inflectional forms; "the first declension in Latin"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Declension \Declen"sion\, n. [Apparently corrupted fr. F. d[82]clinaison, fr. L. declinatio, fr. declinare. See {Decline}, and cf. {Declination}.] 1. The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope. The declension* of the land from that place to the sea. --T. Burnet. 2. A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc. Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension. --Shak. 3. Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination. 4. (Gram.) (a) Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the grammatical cases. (b) The form of the inflection of a word declined by cases; as, the first or the second declension of nouns, adjectives, etc. (c) Rehearsing a word as declined. Note: The nominative was held to be the primary and original form, and was likened to a perpendicular line; the variations, or oblique cases, were regarded as fallings (hence called casus, cases, or fallings) from the nominative or perpendicular; and an enumerating of the various forms, being a sort of progressive descent from the noun's upright form, was called a declension. --Harris. {Declension of the needle}, declination of the needle.