decreasing

UK: /diːˈkriːsɪŋ/ US: (di krē′sing)

From the verb decrease: (⇒ conjugate)

decreasing is: ⓘ

v pres p

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

de•creas•ing  (di krē′sing), adj. 

1. becoming less or fewer;
   diminishing.
2. Mathematics (of a function) having the property that for any two points in the domain such that one is larger than the other, the image of the larger point is less than or equal to the image of the smaller point;
   nonincreasing. Cf. increasing (def. 2).

• 1350–1400; Middle English; see decrease, -ing²

de•creas′ing•ly, adv. 

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

de•crease /v. dɪˈkris; n. ˈdikris, dɪˈkris/   v., -creased, -creas•ing, n. 
v. 

1. to lessen, esp. by degrees;
   (cause to) diminish: [no obj ]:
   Water consumption had to decrease to avoid a drought.
   [ ~ + obj ]:
   They told us to decrease spending.

n. [countable]

2. the act or process of decreasing.
3. the amount by which a thing is lessened:
   a decrease of only 15%.

de•creas•ing, adj. [before a noun]:

decreasing interest rates.

de•creas•ing•ly, adv. 

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

de•crease  (v. di krēs′;n. dē′krēs, di krēs′), v., -creased, -creas•ing, n. 
v.i. 

1. to diminish or lessen in extent, quantity, strength, power, etc.:
   During the ten-day march across the desert their supply of water decreased rapidly.

v.t. 

2. to make less;
   cause to diminish:
   to decrease one's work load.

n. 

3. the act or process of decreasing;
   condition of being decreased;
   gradual reduction:
   a decrease in sales; a decrease in intensity.
4. the amount by which a thing is lessened:
   The decrease in sales was almost 20 percent.

• Latin dēcrēscere (dē- de- + crēscere to grow); see crescent
• Old French decreiss-, long stem of decreistre
• Middle English decres (noun, nominal), decresen (verb, verbal) 1350–1400

Synonyms

• 1. wane, lessen, fall off, decline, contract, abate.
  Decrease, diminish, dwindle, shrink imply becoming smaller or less in amount.
  Decrease commonly implies a sustained reduction in stages, esp. of bulk, size, volume, or quantity, often from some imperceptible cause or inherent process:
  The swelling decreased daily.
  Diminish usually implies the action of some external cause that keeps taking away:
  Disease caused the number of troops to diminish steadily.
  Dwindle implies an undesirable reduction by degrees, resulting in attenuation:
  His followers dwindled to a mere handful.
  Shrink esp. implies contraction through an inherent property under specific conditions:
  Many fabrics shrink in hot water.
• 3. abatement, decline, subsidence, shrinking, dwindling, ebbing.

Antonyms

• 1. increase, expand.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

decrease verb / dɪˈkriːs/

1. to diminish or cause to diminish in size, number, strength, etc

noun / ˈdiːkriːs dɪˈkriːs/

1. the act or process of diminishing; reduction
2. the amount by which something has been diminished

Etymology: 14th Century: from Old French descreistre, from Latin dēcrescere to grow less, from de- + crescere to grow

deˈcreasing adjective

deˈcreasingly adverb