decade

From Middle English [Term?], from Middle French decade, from Late Latin decas (“(set of) ten”), from Ancient Greek δεκάς (dekás), from δέκα (déka, “ten”). In reference to a span of ten years, originally a clipping of the phrase decade of years. The word is equivalent to deca- +‎ -ade.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkeɪd/, /dəˈkeɪd/, /deˈkəd/
• (General American) enPR: dĕk'ād, dəkād', IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkeɪd/, /dəˈkeɪd/

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -eɪd
• Homophone: decayed (one pronunciation)

decade (plural decades)

1. A group, set, or series of ten [from 16th c.], particularly:

   a decade of soldiers

   1. A period of ten years [from 17th c.], particularly such a period beginning with a year ending in 0 and ending with a year ending in 9. [from 19th c.]

      Synonym: decennium (in some contexts)

      The 1960s was a turbulent decade.

      I haven’t seen my cousin in over a decade!

      • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page viii:

        The repeated exposure, over decades, to most taxa here treated has resulted in repeated modifications of both diagnoses and discussions, as initial ideas of the various taxa underwent—often repeated—conceptual modification.

      • 1979 December, “Museums”, in Texas Monthly, volume 7, number 12, page 22:

        Thru May: 1920s — The Decade That Roared. New exhibition portraying historical events and everyday life during the Roaring Twenties.

      • 2013 March, David S. Senchina, “Athletics and Herbal Supplements”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 2, page 134:

        Athletes' use of herbal supplements has skyrocketed in the past two decades.

   2. A period of ten days, (historical) particularly those in the ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and French Revolutionary calendars. [from 18th c.]
      • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 481:

        The year was divided up into twelve months renamed after the seasons [...]; each month comprised three ‘decades’ of ten days – with the décadi replacing Sundays as a day of rest; and each day was reconsecrated to a natural product or farming tool or technique.

   3. (literary, archaic) A work in ten parts or books, particularly such divisions of Livy's History of Rome. [from 15th c.]
   4. (Roman Catholicism) A series of ten prayers counted with the rosary.
   5. Any of the sets of ten sequential braille characters with predictable patterns.
   6. (electronics) A set of ten electronic devices used to represent digits.
2. (electronics) A set of resistors, capacitors, etc. connected so as to provide even increments between one and ten times a base electrical resistance.
3. (physics, engineering) The interval between any two quantities having a ratio of 10 to 1.

   There are decades between 1.8 and 18, between 25 and 250 and between 0.03 and 0.003.

Although a decade may refer to any group of ten years, it often particularly refers to the informal ten-year periods of the calendar whose last digits run from 0 to 9. Some style guides may prefer that decade refers exclusively to such calendar periods while decennium, decennary, &c. refers to ten-year periods in other contexts.

It should be noted that the method of computing a decade is distinguished from the proper computation of centuries and millennia, which run from 1 to 0. The 1st century began with the year 1 and ended with the year 100, but "the Nineties" are the years whose name includes the word ninety, from '90 to '99 with all those years with a 9 in the tens place digit.

• monad · duad, dyad · triad · tetrad · pentad · hexad · heptad · octad · ennead, nonad · decad, decade · hendecad · dodecad, duodecade

• (adj.): decadal
• (10-year period; adj.; in some contexts): see decennial

• “decade, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1894.

• deaced

From French décade, cognate with German Dekade etc.

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decade f (plural decades or decaden, diminutive decadetje n)

1. a decade, period of ten years
2. (historical) a décade, 'week' of ten days in the French republican calendar; hence any ten consecutive days
3. a set of ten book volumes, as part of a larger opus

• (ten years): decennium, jaartien

deca- +‎ -ade

decade f (plural decadi)

1. a decade, a period of ten days

• deca-
• decennio (ten years)

decade

1. third-person singular indicative present of decadere

• deceda

decāde

1. ablative singular of decās

• decade in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

decade f (plural decades)

1. a series of 10 books

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (decade, supplement)