From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgradientgra‧di‧ent /ˈɡreɪdiənt/ noun [countable] TTRTTTa slope or a degree of slope, especially in a road or railway SYN grade American English a steep gradient
Examples from the Corpus
gradient• Climbing back up the one in 4 gradient requires extraordinary reserves of stamina as well.• Here, the continuing water diuresis may have washed out the medullary concentration gradient and led to a protracted concentrating defect.• Instead we guess that the shrimp are detecting gradients of light.• I am sure this must be the steepest natural gradient of temperature on the surface of our planet.• They can also provide the spontaneous formation of gradients.• The route has a ruling gradient of one in 49 with one section at one in 29.• He widened it, evened out the gradients and put in sweeping curves.• The gradient in the horizontal size ratio is referred to as differential horizontal perspective. 