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Meaning of decline in English
If a noun, pronoun , or adjective declines, it has different forms to show if it is the subject or object, etc. of a verb or if it is singular or plural, etc. If you decline such a word, you list its various forms:
In Latin we learned how to decline nouns.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Idiom
decline
noun [ S or U ]
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/ dɪˈklaɪn / us
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/ dɪˈklaɪn /
when something becomes less in amount, importance, quality, or strength:
industrial decline
Home cooking seems to be on the/in decline (= not so many people are doing it) .
a decline in the number of unemployed
She seemed to be recovering and then she went into a decline.
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
- decrease There has been a steady decrease in the number of visitors.
- fall A fall in the price of petrol is unlikely.
- fall-off There’s been a sharp fall-off in demand for the product since the company’s scandal broke.
- falling-off There has been a slight falling-off in public sector employment growth.
- rise There has been a sharp rise in home sales this month.
- The country has been in a very pooreconomicstateever since the decline of its two majorindustries.
- My grandmother, as usual, lamented the decline in moralstandards in today’s society.
- The TV series will be axedowing to a decline in popularity.
- Orders for new ships are rising, after several years of steady decline.
- The new managerhoped to reverse the decline in the company’s fortunes.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
decline | American Dictionary
decline
verb
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/ dɪˈklɑɪn /
decline verb ( GO DOWN )
to go down in amount or quality; lessen or weaken:
His interest in the project declined after his wife died.
Her health declined quickly.
decline verb ( REFUSE )
to refuse something:
[ T ] She declined their job offer.
decline
noun [ C/U ]
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/ dɪˈklɑɪn /
decline noun [C/U] ( GOING DOWN )
a change to a lower amount; the process of becoming less in quality or strength:
[ C usually sing ] Unemployment increased this month after a modest decline.
[ U ] Civilization is in decline.
(Definition of decline from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
decline
verb [ I ]
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/ dɪˈklaɪn / us
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to become less, worse, or lower in value:
Milk production could decline by 15% or more in the late summer months.
declining prices/profits/sales/interest rates
Even though interest rates could decline further, they are now near their lowest point.
decline sharply/rapidly/dramatically
decline gradually/steadily/slowly
Among economists, the widespread view is that the dollar will keep declining.
to make less profit, or produce less:
a declining economy/industry/market The plan will reduce profits for the declining commercial fishing industry.
decline
noun [ C or U ]
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/ dɪˈklaɪn / us
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a reduction in the value or amount of something, for example a currency or sales:
If sustained, the yen’s 12.5% decline against the dollar this month may damp inflation across the region.
A quarter of manufacturers reported a decline in production.
The housing industry experienced a decline in sales.
a rapid/sharp/steep/marked decline
a slight/slow/gradual decline
Further economic decline might provoke spontaneous popular protest.
Little was being done to reverse the decline in the town’s tourist economy.
The industry has been in decline for decades.
(Definition of decline from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
decline
Decline in soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in relation to tillage, stubble management and rotation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The sources do not each contain a distinct stage in an organic process of growth, development, and decline.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
This represents a decline of 17.6 percentage points.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In terms of recreation, culture, education, and even rural industries, the period was characterised as much by development and change as by stagnation and decline.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Technical regulation and enforcement may have actually declined in effectiveness until recent reforms were implemented.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Its decline would give a much-needed boost to output and to technical progress.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The decline in residence with children was most rapid during the period from 1940 to 1980, when more than half the total change took place.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The relationship between age and depressive symptoms in late life : the importance of declining health and increasing disability.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Then, the number of new cases declined quickly.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In many cases, these measures declined substantially with relatively small increases in genetic distance.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Yet, over time, these facilitating effects declined substantially.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
At the same time, the two major parties suffered a devastating decline in parliamentary strength.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The decline of this old economy is only part of the story.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Repeated failures of this nature may ultimately result in decay of the irrigation system and subsequent decline of the local economy.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
It is unlikely that this heralds a decline in the total fertility of these cohorts.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
Collocations with decline
These are words often used in combination with decline .
Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.
Perhaps the more likely explanation is an accelerating decline in the marginal value of additional survival time (independent of pure time preference).
From the Cambridge English Corpus
An age-related decline in interleukin-10 may contribute to the increased expression of interleukin-6 in brain of aged mice.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
There is no apparent decline in these differences at present.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
B2,B2,B2
process
Noun Quotes–> Extra Examples–> How does the election process work? Learning a foreign language can be a long process. We’re remodeling our house. The whole process is expected to take a few months. Breathing and the circulation of blood are life processes. a bony process on the foot
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The Japanese fashion designer pulls back the curtain on his creative process. — Caitie Kelly Wei Tchou Julia Halperin Tom Delavan Lane Nieset Gage Daughdrill, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2023 The goals are to find innovative ways to help finger likely attackers based on their coding styles and to automate parts of the attribution process. — Sarah Scoles, Popular Science, 2 Nov. 2023 The bulk of the film depicts the process of organizing the march as all the prominent civil rights leaders negotiated with one another to hammer out the specifics. — Zachary Clary, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Nov. 2023 These questions signal interest in you and in your process. — Aili McGill, Rolling Stone, 1 Nov. 2023 On November 1, Mowry posted a clip to Instagram showing the behind-the-scenes process and her family’s final costumes. — Gabi Thorne, Allure, 1 Nov. 2023 Eating sustainably is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change, experts say For pumpkins, squash and gourds, remove as many of the seeds as possible and chop them into smaller pieces to help speed up the decomposition process, the magazine states. — Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 1 Nov. 2023 Place the pumpkin in the sun, which will help speed the composting process. — Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 1 Nov. 2023 When first adjusting the collar, Charlie’s owner admitted the buckle was a little challenging to manipulate since the leather hadn’t softened yet, but said the process became much easier as the leather was broken in with use. — Madison Yauger, Peoplemag, 20 Oct. 2023
Verb
He was then processed by officials and served with a Notice to Appear in New York City and released on his own recognizance. — Adam Shaw, Fox News, 3 Nov. 2023 During the third quarter, the Clearing House processed $34.3 billion in transactions on its real-time payments system, up from about $19.7 billion during the year-earlier period. — Kristin Broughton, WSJ, 2 Nov. 2023 All orders will be processed and fulfilled by licensed entities in the industry, and applicable taxes are paid. — wsj.com, 1 Nov. 2023 Glitches are expected in the first few days and weeks of the transition as pharmacies bring new insurance data online in order to process Paxlovid prescriptions. — Fran Kritz, Verywell Health, 31 Oct. 2023 Experts said the upgrades and hiring boost were long overdue and would improve the agency’s ability to process tax returns, but the provision was highly unpopular among Republican lawmakers. — Caitlin Yilek, CBS News, 30 Oct. 2023 In the midst of processing that her best friend Taylor Ann Green lied to her about kissing her ex Austen Kroll, Southern Charm’s Olivia Flowers learned that her brother Conner unexpectedly died at age 32. — Dana Rose Falcone, Peoplemag, 30 Oct. 2023 That includes both people apprehended crossing illegally and those processed at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. — Danielle Wallace, Fox News, 22 Oct. 2023 Studies have shown, for instance, that people with PTSD have hyperactive amygdalae, which are a region of the brain that helps process emotions. — Aria Bendix, NBC News, 22 Oct. 2023
Adjective
The Xe HPC device is a multi-tiled, multi-process-node package with new GPU cores, HBM2e memory, a new Xe Link interconnect, and PCIe Gen 5 implemented with over 100-billion transistors. — Karl Freund, Forbes, 15 Sep. 2021 Regrind silicone used in the speaker is made by reclaiming and upcycling post-process and post-consumer silicone scraps that might otherwise end up in landfill. — Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2022 The One Drop has durable sides and a base made from REGRIND Silicone, a material created by reclaiming and upcycling post-process silicone scraps that would otherwise go to waste. — Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 19 July 2022 This may have positioned several large cities that chose to pre-process ballots to deliver election results earlier than expected. — Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press, 4 Nov. 2020 State Democrats and Republicans both agree that local election workers should be allowed to pre-process ballots early. — Kristine Phillips, USA TODAY, 22 Oct. 2020 The state can’t yet process unemployment claims from independent contractors and the self-employed, even though the federal government has temporarily extended benefits to those workers, St. Louis Public Radio reported. — USA TODAY, 15 Apr. 2020 The recent rise of memes seeming to make light of the Wuhan virus or international tensions offers a glimpse into how teenagers learn about and process world events. — Nicole Daniels, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2020 Knowing that people process things differently and that’s OK. — Gabe Bergado, Teen Vogue, 13 Sep. 2019
Verb
Because of, sort of, the sixth sense in the pocket, the decision-making, processing information quickly. — Mike Rodak | [email protected], al, 11 Apr. 2023 Under the plan, companies licensed to grow, process and sell medical cannabis will be eligible to receive licenses to participate in the recreational market by paying a one-time conversion fee of between $100,000 and $2 million, based on their 2022 sales. — Erin Cox, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2023 The Securitas cash depot was a squat, fortress-like building in Kent, England, where millions of pounds were processed for various banks. — Chris Vognar, Rolling Stone, 9 Apr. 2023 And that becomes the problem because the dream never gets processed. — Kristen Rogers, CNN, 9 Apr. 2023 Daniel Sumner, the director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Lab, said that processed tomato prices have already been high thanks to global supply issues and record drought in California. — Cara Korte, CBS News, 8 Apr. 2023 Militant fighters were posted outside to maintain order while coalition troops processed those seeking entry. — Dan Lamothe and Karen Deyoung, Anchorage Daily News, 7 Apr. 2023 As that product — a can of caviar, say, or a batch of coffee — moves through the supply chain, its digital twin gets encoded with information about how it has been transported and processed, providing a transparent log for companies and consumers. — Ana Swanson, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2023 Yes, colored glass can be recycled when it is processed with glass that all has the same color. — Maria Marabito, Treehugger, 6 Apr. 2023 See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘process.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
