different between ascent vs ascendant

English

Etymology

Formed from ascend on the model of descend/descent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt
• Homophone: assent
• Hyphenation: as?cent

Noun

ascent (countable and uncountable, plural ascents)

1. The act of ascending; a motion upwards.

   He made a tedious ascent of Mont Blanc.

2. The way or means by which one ascends.

   There is a difficult northern ascent from Malaucene of Mont Ventoux.

3. An eminence, hill, or high place.
4. The degree of elevation of an object, or the angle it makes with a horizontal line; inclination; rising grade.

   The road has an ascent of 5 degrees.

5. (typography) The ascender height in a typeface.
6. An increase, for example in popularity or hierarchy
   • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[1]

     That such a safe adaptation could come of The Hunger Games speaks more to the trilogy’s commercial ascent than the book’s actual content, which is audacious and savvy in its dark calculations.

Translations

Anagrams

• casten, enacts, scante, secant, stance

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French ascendant, from Latin ascendens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s?nd?nt/

Adjective

ascendant (comparative more ascendant, superlative most ascendant)

1. Rising, moving upward.
2. Surpassing or controlling.

   • An ascendant spirit above him.

   • 1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy

     The ascendant community obtained a surplus of wealth.

Translations

Noun

ascendant (plural ascendants)

1. Being in control; superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency.

   One man has the ascendant over another.

   • 1769, William Robertson, History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V:

     Chievres had acquired over the mind of the young monarch the ascendant not only of a tutor, but of a parent.

2. An ancestor (antonym of descendant)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ayliffe to this entry?)

3. (usu. followed by to) A royal heir assuming (a place of power)

4. Ascent; height; elevation.
5. (astrology) The horoscope, or that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the moment of one's birth; supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's life and fortune.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burke to this entry?)

Translations

Related terms

• ascend
• ascent
• ascendance
• ascendancy/ascendency
• ascending
• ascender

Anagrams

• adnascent

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ascendens, ascendentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.s??.d??/

Verb

ascendant

1. present participle of ascendre

Adjective

ascendant (feminine singular ascendante, masculine plural ascendants, feminine plural ascendantes)

1. ascendant

Derived terms

• compatibilité ascendante

Noun

ascendant m (plural ascendants)

1. (astrology) ascendant
2. supremacy, ascendancy

3. (genealogy) ancestor, forefather, progenitor

Further reading

• “ascendant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Verb

ascendant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of ascend?