decent
- 1Good enough to be acceptable, though not outstanding.
She found a decent apartment within her budget.
The team put up a decent fight before losing in overtime.
Similaracceptable, adequate, satisfactory, reasonable, passable
Oppositepoor, inadequate, unsatisfactory
Note
Praise with a ceiling: a decent saxophonist is good, but probably not good enough to make a career of it. The usage has a past as slang. In Stephen Fry's The Liar (1991), decent is filed alongside ripping as 1920s schoolboy talk that has gone out of fashion. Yet it carries on in ordinary prose, applied to suits, train services and players alike.
- 2Considerable in amount, size, or degree.
The company posted a decent profit this quarter.
She built up a decent following before launching her own shop.
Similarsizable, considerable, healthy, respectable, substantial
Note
Here the word measures quantity rather than quality, and it almost always sits before a noun of amount: a decent number of references, a decent profit. Unlike the "good enough" meaning, which sounds faintly lukewarm, this one leans upward. A decent number is more than you might expect, not merely enough.
- 3Conforming to basic moral standards, and showing integrity, fairness, and similar honorable qualities.
Most people try to do the decent thing even when no one is watching.
A decent employer treats every worker with respect and fairness.
Similarhonorable, upright, good, ethical, fair
Oppositedishonorable, unscrupulous, unethical
- 4Appropriate and suitable for the particular circumstances.
They couldn't come up with a decent excuse for arriving so late.
Wait a decent interval before raising the subject with him again.
Similarsuitable, appropriate, proper, reasonable, respectable
Oppositeinappropriate, unsuitable
Note
The meaning closest to the word's root: Latin decēns, from decet, "it is fitting or suitable," reached English through Middle French décent. Every later sense grows from this idea of fit. It typically qualifies an interval, an excuse or a pretext, meaning what the situation calls for. Keep it apart from the moral meaning, which judges a person rather than a choice.
- 5
- 6Wearing enough clothing to be seen by others without embarrassment.
She wasn't decent yet, so she asked them to wait in the hall.
Give me a minute to throw on a robe and make myself decent.
Similardressed, presentable, clothed
Note
A word heard through a closed door: "Are you decent? May I come in?" is the stock way to ask whether someone is dressed enough to receive a visitor. It belongs to casual speech, and its usual frames are be decent and make yourself decent. In formal writing, dressed or presentable does the job without the playful hint of modesty.
Less common meaning
- 7Attractive and well-formed in shape or figure.
And ſable ſtole of Cipres Lawn, Over thy decent ſhoulders drawn.
a. 1645, John Milton, “Il Penseroso”Note
This sense judged the body, not behavior, and it is now obsolete. John Milton's Il Penseroso (before 1645) drapes a stole of cypress lawn "over thy decent shoulders," meaning shoulders comely and well-formed. It stays close to the Latin "fitting" behind the "suitable" meaning, since a shapely form is one whose parts fit. Read older poetry this way, or you will hear modesty instead.
Practice
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Origin
This word was borrowed from Middle French décent, or from its source, the Latin decēns, the present participle of decet ('it is fitting or suitable'), which goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *deḱ- ('to take, accept, be suitable'). The meaning 'kind, pleasant' dates from 1902.