decreasing monotonic
- adjective
- Specialized
- If a sequence is decreasing monotonic, each term is less than or equal to the one before it.
Examples
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The graph of a decreasing monotonic function slopes downward as you move from left to right.
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Many physical processes can be modeled by decreasing monotonic functions, such as radioactive decay.
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The decreasing monotonic function is essential in calculus.
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Is the sequence decreasing monotonic?
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A decreasing monotonic sequence always has each term smaller than or equal to the one that comes before it.
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The decreasing monotonic function steadily declines, reflecting the reduction in values over time.
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In mathematics, a decreasing monotonic function is one that does not increase at any point.
Synonyms
Becoming less in number, size, or strength
Antonyms
- Specialized
A list of numbers that never goes down and each number is the same or bigger than the one before
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'decreasing' (becoming smaller) combined with 'monotonic' (never reversing direction) clearly denotes a sequence or function that consistently decreases. Although the more common phrasing is 'monotonic decreasing' or 'monotonically decreasing', the semantic combination is straightforward and cross-linguistically regular, so a learner who knows both constituents will grasp the meaning.
Etymology
Decreasing monotonic gives a clear picture: imagine a staircase that only goes down, where each step is lower than the one before — the decreasing part shows the downward steps and the monotonic part means it never goes up. So it describes a function or list of numbers that 'always goes down' or 'never increases'.