Degradation

How to spell degradation

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce degradation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does degradation mean?

1. nounThe process or condition of declining in quality, strength, or dignity.

Degradation in a sentence

• Years of intensive farming led to serious soil degradation.

• The report warned of the steady degradation of the city's housing stock.

Where does degradation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Late Latin degradare, meaning 'to reduce in rank' or literally 'to step down', formed from de- 'down' and gradus 'a step, a grade'. In the medieval church and military, to degrade someone was to formally strip them of office or honour, a literal lowering of standing. English took the related noun in through Old French degradation in the late 1400s, at first carrying that same idea of being demoted or dishonoured. Over time the sense broadened from the loss of human dignity to any process of breaking down or wearing away, whether of land, materials, or moral standards. The same gradus root, meaning a step, still sits inside familiar words like 'grade', 'gradual', and 'graduate', and remembering that 'grad' core helps fix the spelling of the middle of the word.

How the word is built

• de- (down)
• grad (step, grade)
• -ation (noun of action or state)