diminishing

«diminishing» in Mova's school dictionary: getting smaller, fewer or weaker over time — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

verb (-ing form of diminish: diminish, diminishes, diminished, diminishing); adjective (diminishing)

meaning for a pupil

1) Diminishing means getting smaller, fewer or weaker over time. tree →

2) (adjective) Diminishing describes something that is becoming smaller or less: «diminishing supplies». tree →

sense in the lessons

In science and geography it describes shrinking things: forests, ice, water supplies. In maths it signals decrease — the number is going down. Phrases: «diminishing returns», «a diminishing number», «diminishing light».

examples

• The water in the tank is diminishing day by day. tree →
• The diminishing light told us night was coming. tree →
• Their supply of food was diminishing fast. tree →
• Rainforests are diminishing around the world. tree →
• The noise of the plane was diminishing in the distance. tree →
• A diminishing pattern: 64, 32, 16, 8 — what comes next? tree →
• But the sand hill only drove the pond a little farther away, and its waters seemed to increase instead of diminishing. tree →

note

Formal; everyday words are «getting smaller», «shrinking», «going down». Opposite: increasing, growing. Maths: diminishing means the numbers decrease.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «diminishing» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.