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):

  (file)

• 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.
3. (transitive) To go up.

   You ascend the stairs and take a right.

   • 1957 September, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Manchester—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 620, from Herapath's Journal:

     When a train has to ascend the incline, it first runs down, engine first, from the station about 60 or 70 yards. Then comes behind it the aforesaid truck, or one similar, which, being attached to an endless wire rope, a communication is made by means of the electric telegraph to the engineman at the top of the incline, when the fixed engine begins to work, and the train, partly pulled by the locomotive before, and partly pushed by the truck behind, rapidly ascends, taking somewhere about three minutes to get up.

4. (ambitransitive) To succeed a ruler on (the throne).

   She ascended the throne when her mother abdicated.

   She ascended to the throne when her mother abdicated.

5. (intransitive, figurative) To rise; to become higher, more noble, etc.
6. To trace, search or go backwards temporally (e.g., through records, genealogies, routes, etc.).

   Our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity.

7. (transitive, music) To become higher in pitch.
8. (incel slang, intramurally derogatory) To cease being an incel, generally by losing one's virginity and engaging in sexual intercourse, or by forming a romantic relationship.
   • 2022, Alyssa Jewel Davis, "Climbing the masculine hierarchy: Examining constructions of masculinity through incel identities", thesis submitted to Clemson University, page 35:

     Instead of using sexual conquest as an opportunity to “ascend,” these members advocated for pursuing internal self-improvement.

   • 2023, Julia R. DeCook, Megan Kelly, “Interrogating the 'incel menace': assessing the threat of male supremacy in terrorism studies”, in Ann-Kathrin Rothermel, Laura J. Shepherd, editors, Gender and the Governance of Terrorism and Violent Extremism‎^[1], unnumbered page:

     As such, race and class are not only factors in attractiveness (i.e. “Just Be White” and “job/career maxxing” are often used in the forums), but is also a factor when incels discuss ways for them to “ascend” and leave their incel status.

   • 2023, Maria Brix Rasmussen, "The Lack of Love: The Sacred and the Suffering Experiences of Female Involuntary Celibates", thesis submitted to Uppsala University, page 57:

     Many femcels take extreme measures to 'ascend from femceldom', and Laura describes how she is in the process of improving her looks and personality.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:ascend.

• descend

ascendible

• climb

• “ascend”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ascend”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Dances, dances, decans, descan

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

ascend

1. third-person singular present indicative of ascendre