Slope

How to spell slope

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce slope

What does slope mean?

1. nounA surface or stretch of ground that rises or falls at an angle from the horizontal.
2. verbTo lie or incline at an angle rather than being level or vertical.

Slope in a sentence

• noun

  The cottage sat at the bottom of a grassy slope.

• verb

  The garden begins to slope sharply towards the river.

• noun

  Builders had to level the steep slope before laying the foundation.

• verb

  The old shelves slope slightly, so cans tend to roll forward.

Where does slope come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Slope arose in English in the 1500s, apparently as a shortened form of the older word 'aslope', which meant 'in a slanting direction'. That earlier word traces back to Old English roots tied to the verb 'slupan', meaning 'to slip' or 'to glide', so the underlying idea is of a surface down which something slides. The connection to slipping is easy to remember: a slope is exactly the kind of incline you can slide down. Over time the word broadened from describing the direction of a slant to naming the slanting surface itself, such as a hillside or a roof. The same Germanic family gives us 'slip' and 'sleeve', all sharing that sense of smooth gliding motion. The spelling stayed compact and regular, with the silent final 'e' marking the long 'o' sound.

How the word is built

• slope (a single Germanic root meaning a slant or incline; no prefix or suffix)