You’re staring at the screen. The red squiggly line is mocking you. You’ve tried "descendents" with an e and "descendants" with an a, and honestly, both look equally right and equally wrong at the same time. It’s one of those words. English is a mess of a language, a Germanic base with a heavy French coat and a Latin hat, which is exactly why figuring out how do you spell descendants feels like solving a riddle.
The short answer is: it’s descendants. With an A.
Most people trip up because they think of the verb "descend." If you're going down a mountain, you're descending. Naturally, your brain wants to keep that e moving right into the noun form. But the English language doesn't care about your logic. It cares about etymology and historical quirks that have been baked into dictionaries for centuries.
The One Letter That Trips Everyone Up
Why is that a even there? It feels like a trap. If you look at words like "dependent" or "resplendent," they use the ent suffix. So why does the person coming after you get stuck with an ant?
The culprit is Latin. Specifically, the present participle of descendere is descendens. Now, wait—that has an e! So why did we change it? When the word moved into Old French, it became descendant. English writers, who loved borrowing from the French but also felt a weird loyalty to Latin roots, eventually settled on the ant version for the noun.
It’s annoying. I know.
Interestingly, some dictionaries will tell you that "descendent" with an e is a secondary spelling, but if you're writing a legal document, a history paper, or even a fan-fiction piece about the Disney movie franchise, you need to stick with the a. Using the e version in modern American or British English is usually seen as a typo, even if some obscure 19th-century text might back you up. Don't be that person. Stick to the standard.
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The Noun vs. Adjective Split
Here is where it gets slightly more complicated, though most people ignore this rule anyway. Historically, there was a distinction.
- Descendant (Noun): A person, plant, or animal that is descended from a particular ancestor. "He is a descendant of King Louis XIV."
- Descendent (Adjective): Moving downward or descending. "The descendent path was slippery."
Most modern style guides, including the Associated Press (AP) and Chicago Manual of Style, have basically thrown their hands up and said, "Just use the a for everything." It’s cleaner. It’s easier. If you use "descendant" as both the noun and the adjective, almost no one—not even the crustiest editor—is going to call you out on it.
Think about the way we talk about lineage. We use the word to describe a direct bloodline. It’s about who comes after. If you can remember that an Ancestor starts with an A, you can remember that a descandant (wait, no) a descendant ends with an A.
Actually, that’s a decent mnemonic. Ancestors lead to A-descendants.
Real-World Confusion: Disney and DNA
Look at the cultural impact of the word. If you search for the Disney Channel franchise Descendants, you'll see it spelled with an a. If they had spelled it with an e, they would have been wrong. Imagine the merchandise errors. Millions of dolls and lunchboxes with the wrong vowel.
In the world of genealogy and DNA testing—think 23andMe or Ancestry.com—the spelling is strictly "descendant." When you’re looking at your family tree, you are the descendant of people who survived wars, famines, and the black plague just so you could sit here and wonder how to spell a word.
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Expert genealogists like Megan Smolenyak, who famously tracked down Barack Obama’s Irish roots, use the ant spelling exclusively. If the pros aren't using the e, you shouldn't either.
Common Misspellings to Avoid
We’ve established the e vs. a war. But people find other creative ways to mess this up.
- Decendants: Missing the first s. You need that sc combo. It comes from the Latin scandere, meaning "to climb." De- means down. So "descend" is literally "climb down."
- Desendants: Missing the c.
- Descendents: The classic "I thought this was a punk band" mistake.
Speaking of punk bands, The Descendents (the band from California) famously spell their name with an e. They did this on purpose. Or maybe they didn't, and it just stuck. Either way, if you’re talking about Milo Aukerman and catchy pop-punk songs, use the e. If you’re talking about your Great-Aunt Martha’s grandkids, use the a.
Why Does This Even Rank on Google?
You might wonder why so many people are searching for "how do you spell descendants." It’s because our brains are hardwired for patterns. We see "ascendant" and "descendant" and we think they should follow the same rules as "consistent" or "persistent."
But language isn't a math equation. It's a series of historical accidents.
In 2026, with AI-driven autocorrect everywhere, you’d think this problem would be solved. But autocorrect is often "context-blind." It might see you typing about a "descendent trail" and think you're using the rare adjective form, so it won't flag the e. Or it might just be confused by the band name. This is why human intuition—and a quick check of the rules—still matters.
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How to Never Forget Again
If you want to bake this into your brain so you never have to Google it again, try one of these tricks:
- The Alphabet Trick: Ancestors come first (A), and their descendants also use the A.
- The "Ant" Visualization: Imagine a tiny ant at the bottom of a family tree. He is the descendant.
- The Latin Link: If you know "ascend" and "ascendant," "descendant" follows the exact same "ant" ending.
Most writers struggle with this at some point. It’s not a sign of low intelligence. It’s just a sign that you’re dealing with a word that has a messy history.
Practical Steps for Correct Usage
When you’re drafting your next email or blog post, don't just trust your gut if your gut is telling you to use an e.
First, do a quick "Find" (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) in your document for "descend." Check every instance where it’s used as a noun. If you see an e before that final nt, swap it for an a.
Second, if you’re writing for a specific publication, check their house style. While 99% of modern English uses "descendant," some very old-fashioned legal firms or specific British academic journals might still have a lingering attachment to "descendent" as an adjective. If you aren't writing a 400-page legal brief for a firm founded in 1702, just use the a.
Finally, read it out loud. It won't help with the spelling, but it helps you realize how often you're using the word. Overusing "descendant" makes prose feel clunky. Sometimes you can just say "offspring," "children," or "heirs" and avoid the spelling headache entirely.
The most important thing to remember is that "descendant" with an A is the gold standard for 2026 and beyond. Keep the e for the 80s punk records and keep the a for your family history.