What's the difference between descant and descent?

Descant


Definition:

  • (v. i.) Originally, a double song; a melody or counterpoint sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song.
  • (v. i.) The upper voice in part music.
  • (v. i.) The canto, cantus, or soprano voice; the treble.
  • (v. i.) A discourse formed on its theme, like variations on a musical air; a comment or comments.
  • (v. i.) To sing a variation or accomplishment.
  • (v. i.) To comment freely; to discourse with fullness and particularity; to discourse at large.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Tony Blair added his characteristic descant, adding " We have imbibed deeply of the Olympic spirit … in throwing timidity to the winds we have rediscovered a spirit that is our own ".
  • (2) In a group of cases in which the symptoms had lasted a few months only a displacement towards high frequencies ("descant" displacement) was revealed.
  • (3) Hyperbolic”, sings George, while his friend David does descant, and the massed bands of Fleet Street march into battle.
  • (4) Yet Ukip – from the very beginning – played a racist descant on top of this tune of justifiable grievances.
  • (5) And yet there's a descant in Perth to the major-key optimism that has marked every SNP conference in the last few years.
  • (6) It will certainly bring the contest to succeed Mr Cameron closer – that is the loud descant to everything that is happening among the Tories at Westminster at the moment, as Mr Johnson’s antics demonstrate.
  • (7) Vocal chords will be lubricated with mulled wine and those attempting the dog-whistle Ding Dong descant would do well to consult the pub’s superior malt whisky collection in advance.
  • (8) Unnoticed by anyone, he maintains a gloomy descant ("A dollar is still a lot of money"; "I've suffered from depression all my life"; "I am dubious") to their falsely cheerful exchanges.
  • (9) That's why the opening of the Hockney show has been taking place to a not particularly subtle descant of propaganda and provocation from the great man himself.
  • (10) Indeed, Rona Fairhead, the current chair and once a favoured contributor to George Osborne’s Treasury deliberations, seems as miffed as anyone, while Sir Christopher Bland and Sir Michael Lyons sing transparency’s descant at the back of the chorus.

Descent


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower.
  • (n.) Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; -- often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy.
  • (n.) Progress downward, as in station, virtue, as in station, virtue, and the like, from a higher to a lower state, from a higher to a lower state, from the more to the less important, from the better to the worse, etc.
  • (n.) Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction.
  • (n.) Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity.
  • (n.) Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent.
  • (n.) That which is descended; descendants; issue.
  • (n.) A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation.
  • (n.) Lowest place; extreme downward place.
  • (n.) A passing from a higher to a lower tone.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) These results suggest that the pelvic floor is affected by progressive denervation but descent during straining tends to decrease with advancing age.
  • (2) Blood samples were collected from an antecubital vein at sea level (S1), in a base camp at 1515 m prior to the summit ascent (S2), on the summit at 3285 m after 6.5 hours of climbing (S3), at base camp immediately after the descent (S4), and at sea level following a trail descent from the base camp (S5).
  • (3) A vaginal repair was not detectable radiologically and it did not correct a posterior descent.
  • (4) From the decreased alignment at the N-terminus and the presence of additional residues compared with bacterial phosphorylases, we conclude that the regulatory sequences that also carry the phosphorylation site in the muscle enzyme were joined to a presumed ancestral precursor gene by gene fusion after separation of the eukaryotic and prokaryotic lines of descent.
  • (5) It was determined that in the doses used, 4-MAPC failed to prevent testicular descent.
  • (6) With grievous amazement, never self-pitying but sometimes bordering on a sort of numbed wonderment, Levi records the day-to-day personal and social history of the camp, noting not only the fine gradations of his own descent, but the capacity of some prisoners to cut a deal and strike a bargain, while others, destined by their age or character for the gas ovens, follow "the slope down to the bottom, like streams that run down to the sea".
  • (7) The patients ranged in age from 15 to 69 years (mean, 37) and were predominantly male (14 patients) and white (only 1 was of oriental descent).
  • (8) Fifty-six (92%) of patients dying from pulmonary embolism were of African descent while 5 (8%) were of East Indian descent.
  • (9) It seems to adequately provide the additional needed lift when nipple descent has been no more than 1.5 to 2 cm below the inframammary crease.
  • (10) Using chi 2 analysis, we found that failure of external version was significantly associated with obesity, descent of the breech into the pelvis, decreased fluid, and fetal back positioned posteriorly.
  • (11) The open-sea dives were carried out with an average speed of descent of 3.95 feet per second and an average rate of ascent of 3.50 feet per second.
  • (12) Mortality levels of 100% for Culex quinquefasciatus and Musca domestica test insects were recorded under normal operating conditions during routine scheduled passenger flights with disinsection procedures undertaken at "blocks-away" or at "top-of-descent".
  • (13) Irwin said both Mohamed and CF were British citizens of Somali descent who had travelled to Somaliland – CF in 2009 and Mohamed in 2007.
  • (14) Through this technique, testicular descent can be observed in about 50% of male fetuses examined at weeks 28-30.
  • (15) Descent of a prosthesis below the desired inframammary crease is an infrequent but disturbing complication of augmentation mammaplasty, which may occur for a number of reasons.
  • (16) The percentage of women with the descent of uterus and vagina, uterus displacement and effort urine incontinence was found to increase with age, length of employment and number of deliveries, particularly high percentage being the one relating to women lifting, just once, heavy objects.
  • (17) Since the anterior colporrhaphy according to Stoeckel or Kelly is not capable of curing severe forms of stress incontinence with rotational descent of the urethra, our results show that an additional retropubic urethropoly is desirable and justified in these cases.
  • (18) The amyloid fibril protein seen in patients of Portuguese, Japanese, and Swedish descent in the U.S. mainly consists of a variant form of transthyretin (also called prealbumin) with the substitution of methionine for valine at position 30.
  • (19) This raises the possibility of two lines of descent from a common ancestor.
  • (20) The precise identities of the alleles are irrelevant to the linkage analysis so long as identity-by-descent and linkage-phase information are preserved.