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History vocabulary · Empires, States and Rulers

Decline

Meaning in history, with examples

/dɪˈklaɪn/nounCore term

In history, decline means: A gradual loss of power, wealth, size or importance, as when an empire, city or industry becomes weaker over a long period.

In Turkish: gerileme, çöküş, düşüş

How it is used

Very common in narrative history: the decline of Rome, economic decline, a period of decline. It is also a verb: Trade declined after the war. Historians now often question decline stories and prefer words such as transformation or adaptation.

Example sentences

  1. The port went into decline when the main trade routes moved to the Atlantic.

  2. Many historians now question the old idea of a steady Ottoman decline after the sixteenth century.

Common collocations

  • the decline of Rome
  • economic decline
  • go into decline
  • a period of decline
  • rise and decline
  • empireA large state or group of territories and peoples ruled by a single supreme authority, often an emperor or sultan, and usually built through conquest.
  • Ottoman EmpireThe state founded in north-western Anatolia around 1300 by the dynasty of Osman, which grew into an empire across south-eastern Europe, western Asia and North Africa and lasted until 1922.
  • turning pointA moment or event that causes an important change in the direction of history, after which things develop differently.
  • revisionismThe re-examination of accepted views of the past in the light of new evidence or questions; the word can also mean distorting well-established facts for political ends.
  • interpretationA particular explanation of what past events meant or why they happened, based on the evidence and on the historian's questions and point of view.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Empires, States and Rulers

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