gradient (gra¦di|ent)

noun

• 1an inclined part of a road or railway; a slope: fail-safe brakes for use on steep gradients
• the degree of a slope: the path becomes very rough as the gradient increases
• Mathematics the degree of steepness of a graph at any point.

• 2 Physics an increase or decrease in the magnitude of a property (e.g. temperature, pressure, or concentration) observed in passing from one point or moment to another.
• the rate of such a change.
• Mathematics the vector formed by the operator ∇ acting on a scalar function at a given point in a scalar field.