Descent may refer to:

As a noun

Genealogy and inheritance

  • Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
  • Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
  • Pedigree chart or family tree
  • Ancestry
  • Lineal descendant
  • Heritage
  • Royal descent - lineal descent from a monarch
  • Phylogenetics
  • Tree diagram (disambiguation)
  • Inheritance (law and property)

Mathematics

  • Infinite descent, a method going back to Fermat to solve Diophantine equations
  • Descent (mathematics), an idea extending the notion of "gluing" in topology
  • Hadamard's method of descent, a technique for solving partial differential equations
  • Gradient descent, a first-order optimization algorithm going back to Newton
  • Descents in permutations, a classical permutation statistic in combinatorics

Other uses

  • Descent (aeronautics), the decrease of an aircraft in altitude during flight
  • Descent (font), the distance that a typeface descends below the baseline in typography
  • Katabasis

As a proper name

Film

  • The Descent, a 2005 horror film
  • The Descent Part 2, the 2009 sequel to the 2005 film
  • Descent (2007 film), a thriller film starring Rosario Dawson
  • Descent (2017 film), a Nigerian film

Gaming

  • Descent (video game), first in a series from Interplay Entertainment and Parallax Software
  • Descent II, sequel to Descent
  • Descent 3, sequel to Descent II
  • Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War, a 1998 space combat simulation computer game
  • Descent: Journeys in the Dark, a 2005 board game by Fantasy Flight Games
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition – The Descent, a 2015 downloadable content pack for Dragon Age: Inquisition

Literature

  • Descent: An Irresistible Tragicomedy of Everyday Life, a 2004 novel by Sabrina Broadbent
  • The Descent (novel), by Jeff Long
  • Descent (magazine), a magazine about caving
  • Descent (journal), a genealogy journal published by the Society of Australian Genealogists

Music

  • Descent (Immolation album), 2026
  • Descent (Orbit Culture album), 2023
  • "Descent" (song), a song by Fear Factory from Obsolete
  • Descent, an album by the band This Burning Effigy
  • "Descent", a song by Celldweller from Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 01
  • "Descent", a song by Godflesh from Us and Them
  • "Descent", a song by Humanity's Last Breath from Välde
  • "Descent", a song by Knut from Bastardiser
  • "Descent", a song by Neurosis from Times of Grace
  • "Descent", a song by Sylosis from A Sign of Things to Come
  • "A Descent", a song by Born of Osiris from A Higher Place
  • "The Descent", a song by Insomnium from Shadows of the Dying Sun (bonus track)
  • "The Descent", a song by Polaris from The Death of Me

Television

  • "Descent" (NCIS: Los Angeles), a 2013 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles
  • "Descent" (The Outer Limits), a 1999 episode of The Outer Limits
  • "Descent" (Stargate SG-1), a 2002 episode of Stargate SG-1
  • "Descent" (Star Trek: The Next Generation), a two-part 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • "Descent" (Star Wars Resistance)
  • "The Descent" (The Vampire Diaries), a 2011 episode of The Vampire Diaries
  • "Descent" (X-Men: The Animated Series), a 1997 episode
  • Descent, a 2024 Australian online comedy series released by Grouse House

See also

  • Dissent (homophone)