different between descend vs reduce

English

Etymology

From Middle English decenden, borrowed from Old French descendre, from Latin descendere, past participle descensus (“to come down, go down, fall, sink”), from de- (“down”) + scandere (“to climb”). See scan, scandent. Compare ascend, condescend, transcend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??s?nd/
• Hyphenation (US): de?scend; (UK): des?cend
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

descend (third-person singular simple present descends, present participle descending, simple past and past participle descended)

1. (intransitive) To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, for example by falling, flowing, walking, climbing etc.
   • 2002, John Griesemer, No One Thinks of Greenland: A Novel

     Rudy felt a gust of fear rise in his chest, and he looked again in the mirror, but the hangar and stable were now beyond the rise, out of sight, he was descending so fast.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge: From the Conquest to the Year 1634

   We will here descend to matters of later date.

   • 1611, King James Version, Matthew vii. 25.

   The rain descended, and the floods came.

2. (intransitive, poetic) To enter mentally; to retire.

   • [He] with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended.

3. (intransitive, with on or upon) To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
   • 2013, Deltrice Alfred Grossmith, Arctic Warriors: A Personal Account of Convoy PQ18

     more aircraft descending on us than had done during previous visits from the snoopers in their usual ones and twos.

   • 1726, Alexander Pope, Odyssey

   And on the suitors let thy wrath descend.

4. (intransitive) To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or rank; to lower or abase oneself
   • August 25, 1759, Samuel Johnson, The Idler No. 71

     He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings.

5. (intransitive) To pass from the more general or important to the specific or less important matters to be considered.
6. (intransitive) To come down, as from a source, original, or stock
7. to be derived (from)
8. to proceed by generation or by transmission; to happen by inheritance.

9. (intransitive, astronomy) To move toward the south, or to the southward.
10. (intransitive, music) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
11. (transitive) To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of

Synonyms

• go down

Antonyms

• ascend
• go up

Derived terms

• descender

Related terms

• descent

Translations

Anagrams

• scended

French

Verb

descend

1. third-person singular present indicative of descendre

English

Etymology

From Middle English reducen, from Old French reducer, from Latin red?c? (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + d?c? (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???dju?s/, /???d?u?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???du?s/
• Rhymes: -u?s

Verb

reduce (third-person singular simple present reduces, present participle reducing, simple past and past participle reduced)

1. (transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
2. (intransitive) To lose weight.
3. (transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
   • 1815, Walter Scott, Guy Mannering

     My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little.

   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Folly of Scoffing at Religion

     nothing so excellent but a man may falten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it .

   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

     Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears.

   • Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.
4. (transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.

5. (transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.

6. (transitive, cooking) To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
   • 2011, Edward Behr and James MacGuire, The Art of Eating Cookbook: Essential Recipes from the First 25 Years.

     Serve the oxtails with mustard or a sauce made by reducing the soup, if any is left, to a slightly thick sauce.

7. (transitive, chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
8. (transitive, metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
9. (transitive, mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
10. (transitive, computer science) To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
11. (transitive, logic) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form
12. (transitive, law) To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".)

13. (transitive, medicine) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
14. (transitive, military) To reform a line or column from (a square).
15. (transitive, military) To strike off the payroll.
16. (transitive, Scotland, law) To annul by legal means.
17. (transitive, obsolete) To translate (a book, document, etc.).

Synonyms

• (to bring down): cut, decrease, lower
• (cooking): inspissate; see also Thesaurus:thicken

Antonyms

• (to bring down): increase

Related terms

Translations

See also

• reducing agent

References

• reduce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Etymology

From Latin redux (“that returns”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r?.du.t??e/

Adjective

reduce (plural reduci) (da)

1. returning (from)

   Synonym: ritornato

Noun

reduce m or f (plural reduci)

1. survivor

   Synonym: sopravvissuto

2. veteran (of a conflict)

   Synonyms: veterano, ex combattente

Anagrams

• ducere

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /re?du?.ke/, [r??d?u?k?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /re?du.t??e/, [r??d?u?t???]

Verb

red?ce

1. second-person singular present active imperative of red?c?

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.ke/, [?r?d??k?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.t??e/, [?r??d?ut???]
• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.ke/, [?r?d??k?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.t??e/, [?r??d?ut???]

Adjective

r?duce

1. ablative masculine singular of r??dux
2. ablative feminine singular of r??dux
3. ablative neuter singular of r??dux

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin reducere, French réduire, based on duce. Compare the inherited doublet ar?duce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /re?dut?e/, [re??d?ut?e?]

Verb

a reduce (third-person singular present reduce, past participle redus) 3rd conj.

1. (transitive) to reduce, to lessen

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

• duce

See also

• ar?duce

Spanish

Verb

reduce

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of reducir.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of reducir.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of reducir.