declination
When you turn down an invitation, that’s a declination. Another kind of declination is when something slopes down, like the declination of a playground slide.
Look at the noun declination and you can see the verb decline, which means “to lessen,” “to slope down,” and “to refuse.” Declination is the process of doing any of these things. In astronomy, it’s also the distance between an object and the celestial equator, measured at an angle. The Latin root is declinatio, “a bending away.”
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a condition inferior to an earlier condition; a gradual falling off from a better state
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synonyms:
decline-
Antonyms:
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improvement, melioration
a condition superior to an earlier condition
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types:
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disuse, neglect
the state of something that has been unused and neglected
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twilight
a condition of decline following successes
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wreck
something or someone that has suffered ruin or dilapidation
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omission
something that has been omitted
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improvement, melioration
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a downward slope or bend
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a polite refusal of an invitation
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synonyms:
regrets-
type of:
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acknowledgement, acknowledgment
a statement acknowledging something or someone
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refusal
a message refusing to accept something that is offered
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acknowledgement, acknowledgment
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(astronomy) the angular distance of a celestial body north or to the south of the celestial equator; expressed in degrees; used with right ascension to specify positions on the celestial sphere
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synonyms:
celestial latitude, dec-
type of:
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angular distance
the angular separation between two objects as perceived by an observer
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angular distance