declension Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the inflection of nouns and pronouns and adjectives in Indo-European languages
  2. noun process of changing to an inferior state
    worsening; decline in quality; deterioration.
  3. noun a downward slope or bend
    decline; descent; declivity; downslope; declination; fall.
  4. noun 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

WordNet

De*clen"sion noun
Etymology
Apparently corrupted fr. F. déclinaison, fr. L. declinatio, fr. declinare. See Decline, and cf. Declination.
Definitions
  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. ✍ 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.

Webster 1913