decline

From Wiktionary
decline is on the Academic Word List.

Pronunciation[change]

Verb[change]

Plain form
decline

Third-person singular
declines

Past tense
declined

Past participle
declined

Present participle
declining

  1. (intransitive) If something declines, it goes down in number, quality, slope, or value.
    The Australian dollar has declined 3% against the Euro.
    The number of students studying foreign languages continues to decline.
  2. (transitive & intransitive) If someone declines an offer, they do not accept it.
    We asked Josh to come with us to the restaurant, but he declined.

Noun[change]

Singular
decline

Plural
declines

  1. (countable) A decline happens when the number, quality, slope, or value of something goes down.
    There has been a 3% decline in the Australian dollar against the Euro.
    Every year we see a larger decline in the number of students studying foreign languages.
  2. (countable) A decline is a hill or line that goes down.
    The truck crashed after picking up too much speed on the decline.