decline vs progress

decline

verb
  • To become weaker or worse. 

  • To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain. 

  • To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun. 

  • To cause to decrease or diminish. 

  • To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall. 

  • To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw. 

  • To move downwards, to fall, to drop. 

  • To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like. 

  • To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play. 

  • To recite all the different declined forms of (a word). 

noun
  • A weakening. 

  • Downward movement, fall. 

  • A reduction or diminution of activity. 

  • The act of declining or refusing something. 

  • A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road. 

progress

verb
  • To improve; to become better or more complete. 

  • To develop. 

  • To expedite. 

  • To move, go, or proceed forward; to advance. 

noun
  • Specifically, advancement to a higher or more developed state; development, growth. 

  • Movement onwards or forwards or towards a specific objective or direction; advance. 

  • An official journey made by a monarch or other high personage; a state journey, a circuit. 

  • Movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time. 

  • Science has made extraordinary progress in the last fifty years. 

How often have the words decline and progress occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )