crescentes

Crescentes is a term used in Portuguese as the plural form of the adjective crescente, meaning growing or increasing. It is commonly employed to describe quantities, trends, or phenomena that are moving upward, such as in economics, demography, or mathematics.

Etymology and usage: Crescente comes from Latin crescens, the present participle of crescere, “to grow.” Its meaning is preserved in related Romance-language terms, for example the Spanish equivalent crecientes. In Portuguese, crescentes modifies masculine or mixed-gender nouns (as in números crescentes, taxas crescentes).

In mathematics and science, crescentes is used to indicate something that increases with respect to a variable. Examples include sequências crescentes (increasing sequences) and funções crescentes (increasing functions). In economics or population studies, one might refer to dados crescentes or tendências crescentes to describe upward trends.

In astronomy, the related concept appears in phrases like fases crescentes to denote waxing lunar phases. While crescentes can function as an adjective in such constructions, it is less common as a standalone noun.

Overall, crescentes is a descriptive term applied across disciplines to denote growth or elevation, reflecting its Latin-root meaning of growing, and it has cognates in other Romance languages with the same core idea.