descent

The descent is the way down. The plane tips forward, the seatbelt sign pings, your ears block, and that is the descent beginning. On a bike it is the reward for the climb, six kilometres of descent with the wind pulling at your jacket.

Descent is also where a family comes from, as in she is of Irish descent, or a man of Norwegian descent on his mother's side. It names a slide into something bad as well, such as a country's descent into civil war or his descent into debt. The verb is descend and the adjective is descending, as in descending order, biggest first. The one to watch is dissent, which sounds almost identical and means disagreement: descent goes down, dissent says no.