decade
Pluraldecades
- 1A length of time that lasts ten years.
Like a row of ten candles, where each candle stands for one year.
The town changed completely over the past decade.
Many decades passed before the old bridge was finally repaired.
UsageOften in a decade ago and for decades.
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- 2A group or set of ten things counted together.
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- 3A set of rosary prayers made up of one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and a Glory Be.
Like one round in a longer set of prayers.
She prayed a decade before falling asleep.
The group recited three decades together at the chapel.
UsageOften a decade of the rosary; people say or pray a decade.
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Less common meanings
- 4The step between two values when one is ten times the other, as on some graphs.
Like going from 10 to 100: ten times as much.
On the chart, each decade marks a tenfold increase in frequency.
Each line on the graph marks one decade, such as 10 to 100.
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- 5A period of ten days, like those used in some old calendars.
The ancient Egyptian month was split into three parts, each a decade of ten days.
Revolutionary France replaced the week with a ten-day decade.
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- 6A part of a long book made up of ten sections or volumes.
Scholars studied the first decade of the ancient history.
The work survives only in scattered decades.
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- 7A set of ten braille characters that follow a regular pattern.
- 8A set of electrical parts switched in equal steps, usually from zero to nine times a base value.
- 9An electronic circuit that counts through ten states to represent the digits zero through nine.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Greek "deka," meaning "ten." The meaning "ten years" was first a short form of "decade of years."
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The word ultimately derives from Greek deka, meaning ten. en.wiktionary.org
- The ten-year sense originated as a shortening of decade of years. en.wiktionary.org