ascending

From ascend +‎ -ing.

• IPA^(key): /əˈsɛn.dɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛndɪŋ

ascending

1. present participle and gerund of ascend

ascending (not comparable) (attributive)

1. Rising or increasing to higher levels, values, or degrees. (e.g. of a sequence)

   Please arrange these numbers in an ascending order.

   • 1954 July, C. R. L. Coles, “Memories of the Great Central”, in Railway Magazine, page 464:

     Once though the station the deep-throated exhaust of G.C.R. engines, and particularly the "Directors", could be heard in ascending crescendo as the drivers opened out to take the gradient.

   1. (computing) That causes a sequence to follow an order.

      We used an ascending sort.

2. Leading or sloping upwards.

   Synonym: (biology, physiology) ascendant

• descending

ascending (plural ascendings)

1. An ascent.

   continual ascendings and descendings

• “ascending”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “ascending”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.