ascent

noun ascents

1. countable, uncountable The act of ascending; a motion upwards. He made a tedious ascent of Mont Blanc.
2. countable, uncountable The way or means by which one ascends. There is a difficult northern ascent from Malaucene of Mont Ventoux.
3. countable, uncountable An eminence, hill, or high place.
4. countable, uncountable The degree of elevation of an object, or the angle it makes with a horizontal line; inclination; gradient; steepness The road has an ascent of 5 degrees.
5. countable, uncountable The ascender height in a typeface.
6. countable, uncountable An increase, for example in popularity or hierarchy That such a safe adaptation could come of The Hunger Games speaks more to the trilogy’s commercial ascent than the book’s actual content, which is audacious and savvy in its dark calculations.