Downward

How to spell downward

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce downward

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does downward mean?

1. adverbToward a lower position, level, or place.
2. adjectiveMoving or pointing toward a lower position or level.

Downward in a sentence

• adverb

  The lift moved slowly downward to the basement car park.

• adjective

  The report noted a steady downward trend in monthly sales.

• adverb

  She tilted the screen downward to reduce the glare.

• adjective

  A sharp downward slope made the driveway hard to climb in ice.

Where does downward come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, built entirely from Old English parts rather than borrowed from any classical language. The first element, 'down', began life as the Old English noun dūn meaning a hill or high open ground, which is why areas of rolling hills in southern England are still called downs; the directional sense 'toward the ground' grew out of the phrase ofdūne, literally 'off the hill', which collapsed over time into the single word 'down'. The ending '-ward' comes from the Old English suffix -weard, meaning 'turning toward' or 'in the direction of', the same element you find in 'forward', 'backward', and 'toward'. Joined together, the compound has meant 'in the direction of a lower place' since before the Norman Conquest. The spelling trap is small but real: the '-ward' ending is unstressed and sounds like a vague 'werd', so writers sometimes wonder whether it should be '-wards', and Americans in particular tend to drop the 's' while British writers often keep it in the adverb 'downwards'.

How the word is built

• down (Old English dūn: a hill, later the direction toward the ground)
• -ward (Old English -weard: turning toward, in the direction of)