slope

1 of 3

adjective

: that slants : sloping
often used in combination
slope-sided

slope

2 of 3

verb

sloped; sloping

intransitive verb

1
: to take an oblique course
2
: to lie or fall in a slant : incline
3
: go, travel
slopes off into the nightWolcott Gibbs

transitive verb

: to cause to incline or slant
sloper noun

slope

3 of 3

noun

1
: ground that forms a natural or artificial incline
2
: upward or downward slant or inclination or degree of slant
3
: the part of a continent draining to a particular ocean
Alaska's North Slope
4
a
: the tangent of the angle made by a straight line with the x-axis
b
: the slope of the line tangent to a plane curve at a point

Examples of slope in a Sentence

Verb His handwriting slopes to the left. they sloped our new driveway too steeply and now my car scrapes bottom whenever I back out onto the street Noun They climbed the steep slope. What is the angle of the slope? You can adjust the slope of the ramp. a slope of 30 degrees
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
In the Dolomites, the pleasures of post-slope relaxing are simply woven into the culture. Pilar Guzmán, Travel + Leisure, 19 Mar. 2023 Below, Vogue tracks the most noteworthy openings, from restaurants, to stores, to post-slope hotspots. Elise Taylor, Vogue, 26 Nov. 2021 In an interview in September, Friedman said that installing a mid-slope retaining wall downhill from the Georges’ building would cost $5 million. Steven Litt, cleveland, 8 Nov. 2021 Friedman said that the new geotechnical studies show that in order to save the building, the port would have to spend $5 million to install a mid-slope retaining wall. Steven Litt, cleveland, 9 Sep. 2021
Verb
Moving through to the living room, the house suddenly opens up with wall-to-wall glass and views from Diamond Head to the ships of Honolulu Harbor and the sloping Waianae Mountains. Kristina Linnea Garcia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Mar. 2024 But late Thursday morning, a pair of National Guard troops with rifles walked down the sloping hallway between the Fulton Street and World Trade Center subway stations in Lower Manhattan, past the gelato stand where Aileen Morales works. Ana Ley, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024 But in the wake of the incident, his career continued to slope upwards. Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 20 Dec. 2023 Both places of worship are built in the Sudanic-Sahelian architectural style, with softly sloping pyramid towers and domes, studded with palm sticks. Kate Matthams, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024 Toward the end of the first century B.C., a small settlement was established atop a sloping hill overlooking an emerging capital city in France. Moira Ritter, Miami Herald, 26 Jan. 2024 Nakamura’s team instead designed triangular quantum wells, in which the energy barriers slope up gradually from the base of the well. IEEE Spectrum, 18 Jan. 2024 The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is particularly vulnerable to climate change, because the land under it is below sea level and slopes downward. Laura Paddison, CNN, 8 Feb. 2024 The yard was always soggy — their block sloped down toward them — and there are flies and mosquitoes. Curbed, 23 Jan. 2024
Noun
The main floor of the resort has a ski boutique stocked with Rossignol equipment and other essentials for the slopes, plus a convenient store that sells local goods and a wide array of Japanese snacks. Lydia Price, Travel + Leisure, 9 Mar. 2024 Avalanches can have a number of causes, including the angle of the mountain slope and a trigger like a rider disturbing the area or strong winds or rock falls. Kerry Breen, CBS News, 5 Mar. 2024 Two occupants in the F-350 left the pickup and, with the help of other drivers behind them, began pushing the vehicle toward the crest of the slope. Ishani Desai, Sacramento Bee, 4 Mar. 2024 The Reno forecast office also issued a backcountry avalanche warning through 5 p.m. on Sunday for the Central Sierra slopes, and advised against travel there. Don Clyde, NPR, 2 Mar. 2024 The island, 48 kilometers (30 miles) off New Zealand’s North Island, was once a popular tourist destination for those wanting to trek up the slopes of an active volcano. Chris Lau, CNN, 1 Mar. 2024 Ski Dubai, the world’s largest indoor ski slope, is located within the Mall of the Emirates. Laura Manske, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024 Now Italian media are joking that the holiday was more of a settimana verde, a green week, with nearly half the nation’s ski slopes only partially open, or not open at all. Fiona Sibbett, CNN, 28 Feb. 2024 Now, Odysseus, as the 14-foot-tall Nova-C spacecraft is called, is on its side, perhaps perched against a rock or a steep slope. Christian Davenport, Washington Post, 27 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'slope.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Middle English sloop, probably from aslope, adverb, at an angle

First Known Use

Adjective

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1591, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

circa 1568, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of slope was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near slope

Cite this Entry

“Slope.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slope. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

slope

1 of 3 adjective
: that slants : sloping

slope

2 of 3 verb
sloped; sloping
: to take a slanting direction : give a slant to : incline
sloper noun

slope

3 of 3 noun
1
: ground that forms a natural or artificial incline
2
: upward or downward slant or degree of slant
3
: the ratio of the change in a vertical direction to the change in a horizontal direction between any two points on the graph of a straight line

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