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The gradient is a fancy word for derivative, or the rate of change of a function. Itâs a vector (a direction to move) that. 1  Points in the direction of greatest increase of a function (intuition on why)  Is zero at a local maximum or local minimum (because there is no single direction of increase)
Confidence votes 12.6K. In really simple terms (in common usage) the word gradient is used to describe how steep a hill is. However in more technical terms it is a mathematical term which describes the rate at which something changes (be it a slope, like our example of the hill above or more complex things).he gradient of a straight line is the number of co-ordinates on the y axis to one co-ordinate on the x axis.