English
decade
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈdɛkeɪd/, /dəˈkeɪd/
  • (GA) enPR dĕk'ād, IPA: /ˈdɛkeɪd/, /dəˈkeɪd/
  • (RP, GA) IPA: /ˈdɛkəd/ (set of ten prayers in a Rosary)
Noun

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.]
      Synonyms: decennium
      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.
    2. A period of ten days, (history) particularly those in the ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and French Revolutionary calendars. [from 18th c.]
    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 prayers counted on a rosary, typically consisting of an Our Father, followed by ten Hail Marys, and concluding with a Glory Be and sometimes the Fatima Prayer.
    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.
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