Definition: ascent

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

ascent
     n 1: an upward slope or grade (as in a road); "the car couldn't
          make the grade" [syn: acclivity, rise, raise, climb,
           upgrade] [ant: descent]
     2: a movement upward; "they cheered the rise of the hot-air
        balloon" [syn: rise, rising, ascension] [ant: fall]
     3: the act of changing location in an upward direction [syn: rise,
         ascension, ascending]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Ascent \As*cent"\ [Formed like descent, as if from a F. ascente,
   fr. a verb ascendre, fr. L. ascendere. See Ascend,
   Descent.]
   1. The act of rising; motion upward; rise; a mounting upward;
      as, he made a tedious ascent; the ascent of vapors from
      the earth.

            To him with swift ascent he up returned. --Milton.

   2. The way or means by which one ascends.

   3. An eminence, hill, or high place. --Addison.

   4. The degree of elevation of an object, or the angle it
      makes with a horizontal line; inclination; rising grade;
      as, a road has an ascent of five degrees.