Consider the TRS R consisting of the rewrite rules 1: concat(leaf,Y) -> Y 2: concat(cons(U,V),Y) -> cons(U,concat(V,Y)) 3: lessleaves(X,leaf) -> false 4: lessleaves(leaf,cons(W,Z)) -> true 5: lessleaves(cons(U,V),cons(W,Z)) -> lessleaves(concat(U,V),concat(W,Z)) There are 4 dependency pairs: 6: CONCAT(cons(U,V),Y) -> CONCAT(V,Y) 7: LESSLEAVES(cons(U,V),cons(W,Z)) -> LESSLEAVES(concat(U,V),concat(W,Z)) 8: LESSLEAVES(cons(U,V),cons(W,Z)) -> CONCAT(U,V) 9: LESSLEAVES(cons(U,V),cons(W,Z)) -> CONCAT(W,Z) The approximated dependency graph contains 2 SCCs: {6} and {7}. - Consider the SCC {6}. There are no usable rules. By taking the polynomial interpretation [CONCAT](x,y) = [cons](x,y) = x + y + 1, rule 6 is strictly decreasing. - Consider the SCC {7}. The usable rules are {1,2}. By taking the polynomial interpretation [leaf] = 1, [concat](x,y) = x + y and [cons](x,y) = [LESSLEAVES](x,y) = x + y + 1, rule 2 is weakly decreasing and the rules in {1,7} are strictly decreasing. Hence the TRS is terminating.