Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To go or move upward; rise: synonym: rise.
  • intransitive verb To slope upward.
  • intransitive verb To rise from a lower level or station; advance.
  • intransitive verb To go back in time or upward in genealogical succession.
  • intransitive verb To move upward upon or along; climb.
  • intransitive verb To slope upward toward or along.
  • intransitive verb To succeed to; occupy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To move upward; mount; go up; rise, whether in air or water, or upon a material object.
  • To rise, in a figurative sense; proceed from an inferior to a superior degree, from mean to noble objects, from particulars to generals, etc.
  • To slope upward.
  • To go backward in the order of time; proceed from modern to ancient times: as, our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity.
  • To rise, as a star; appear above the horizon.
  • In music, to rise in pitch; pass from any tone to one more acute.
  • To go or move upward upon; climb: as, to ascend a hill or ladder; to ascend a tree.
  • To move upward along; go toward the source of: as, to ascend a river. Synonyms

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To move upward; to mount; to go up; to rise; -- opposed to descend.
  • intransitive verb To rise, in a figurative sense; to proceed from an inferior to a superior degree, from mean to noble objects, from particulars to generals, from modern to ancient times, from one note to another more acute, etc.
  • transitive verb To go or move upward upon or along; to climb; to mount; to go up the top of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To move upward, to fly, to soar.
  • verb intransitive To slope in an upward direction.
  • verb transitive To go up.
  • verb transitive To succeed.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb become king or queen
  • verb come up, of celestial bodies
  • verb go along towards (a river's) source
  • verb travel up,
  • verb go back in order of genealogical succession
  • verb slope upwards
  • verb move to a better position in life or to a better job
  • verb appear to be moving upward, as by means of tendrils

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English ascenden, from Old French ascendre, from Latin ascendere : ad-, ad- + scandere, to climb; see skand- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ascenden, from Latin ascendere ("to go up, climb up to"), from ad ("to") + scandere ("to climb"); see scan. Unrelated to accede other than common ad prefix.

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