decimate
verb
John DrydenJason Diamos
Did you know?
Decimate is a word that often raises hackles, at least those belonging to a small but committed group of logophiles who feel that it is commonly misused. The issue that they have with the decline and fall of the word decimate is that once upon a time in ancient Rome it had a very singular meaning: “to select by lot and kill every tenth man of a military unit.” However, many words in English descended from Latin have changed and/or expanded their meanings in their travels. For example, we no longer think of sinister as meaning “on the left side,” and delicious can describe things both tasty and delightful. Was the “to kill every tenth man” meaning the original use of decimate in English? Yes, but not by much. It took only a few decades for decimate to acquire its broader, familiar meaning of “to severely damage or destroy,” which has been employed steadily since the 17th century.
Examples of decimate in a Sentence
John P. O’Brien, Mercury News, 13 Sep. 2025
Apart from decimating hundreds of species, the construction of an airport, a power plant, a ship repair yard, and a township will also cut off the tiny Shompen tribe from much of their habitat.
—M. Rajshekhar, Time, 11 Sep. 2025
That has monumentally changed college sports, of course, funneling schools into the Big Ten and SEC while decimating conferences like our old Pac-12 – but not the appeal of Pac-12 After Dark.
—Jim Alexander, Oc Register, 11 Sep. 2025
Poaching later decimated the wildlife here, until 2003, when NGO African Parks began comanaging Liuwa alongside the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife and the Barotse Royal Establishment.
—Mazuba Kapambwe, AFAR Media, 10 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for decimate
Cite this Entry
“Decimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decimate. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
decimate
verb
Share