abklingenden

Abklingenden is the inflected form of the present participle (partizip Präsens) of the German verb abklingen. It denotes a process in which something gradually loses intensity, subsides, or comes to a halt. The construction is commonly used with nouns to describe ongoing or imminent subsidence, for example: das abklingende Geräusch des Meeres, abklingende Schmerzen, die abklingende Hoffnung. It is frequently found in descriptive, medical, meteorological, or acoustic contexts.

Grammatically, abklingenden functions as an attributive or predicative adjective. In the singular it agrees with the noun: der abklingende Prozess, die abklingende Phase, das abklingende Signal. In the plural it appears as die abklingenden Prozesse (or Signale, Geräusche, etc.). Typical inflections include des abklingenden Geräusches, der abklingenden Störung, dem abklingenden Rauschen. It is commonly used to characterize something still in progress of quieting or fading rather than something that has fully ended.

Etymology and usage notes: the word combines the prefix ab- with klingen (to ring or to sound), signaling a movement away from a previous level of intensity. Semantically it overlaps with synonyms such as abschwächen, nachlassen, erlahmen, and contrasts with ausklingen, which more often implies a fading out toward a final conclusion. Common collocations include abklingende Geräusche, abklingende Schmerzen, abklingende Wellen. The form abklingen can be used with the verbs or nouns in di2fferent syntactic roles, while abklingenden mainly appears adjectivally in descriptions.