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# diminishing

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

«diminishing» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Diminishing means getting smaller, fewer or weaker over time. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#m1)
2. (adjective) Diminishing describes something that is becoming smaller or less: «diminishing supplies». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#m2)

### 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 →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#x1)
- The diminishing light told us night was coming. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#x2)
- Their supply of food was diminishing fast. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#x3)
- Rainforests are diminishing around the world. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#x4)
- The noise of the plane was diminishing in the distance. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#x5)
- A diminishing pattern: 64, 32, 16, 8 — what comes next? [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#x6)
- But the sand hill only drove the pond a little farther away, and its waters seemed to increase instead of diminishing. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/#x7)

### Note

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

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «diminishing» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diminishing/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«diminishing» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/diminishing.html) on Mova free.