Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DECIMATE

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pronounce DECIMATE: Say it "DESS uh mate." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: Words like decade, decimal, and decimate belong to the same family: they all trace back to decem, Latin for the number ten (or deka, the Greek equivalent). See if you can recall another member of that family: a deca_____ is a list of ten commandments, or more loosely, any group of ten basic, important rules. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)   definition: Our word "decimate" comes from the Latin decimare, "the killing or removal of 1 out of every 10." Going back to Rome around 471 BC, decimation--the killing of 1 out of every 10 soldiers--was a way to punish an entire group of those soldiers for a crime they'd all committed, like mutiny or desertion. (If you kill them all, then you don't have an army anymore, so 10% really gets the message across.) In English, that's what "decimate" first meant: to kill 1/10th, as in "They decimated our cattle" or "The war decimated the population." But since 1660, we've also used the word more loosely. To decimate something is to ruin it, destroy it, or drastically reduce it. "Decimate" has a very long history of people complaining about this looser meaning. "The word decimate has dec in it, and so it ONLY means 'to kill 1 out of 10,'" they insist. Well, it does mean that. But if you look at texts published today, and even texts published all the way back to the 1660s, you'll see that the looser meaning is much more common. It's standard English. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Verb, the transitive kind: "A disease decimated their population." Other forms:  Decimated, decimating, decimation, decimator(s). how to use it: Whether you're using it literally or figuratively, the formal, common word "decimate" has a harsh, violent tone. We talk about things (like wars, diseases, and natural disasters) that decimate armies, populations, and other groups of people, as well as groups of animals and plants. More figuratively, things can decimate a campaign, a movement, a relationship, an industry, an attempt, a hope or a dream, etc. examples: "The soil has been decimated by years of overfarming and overgrazing."    — Trevor Noah, Born a Crime, 2016 "You pretty much decimated their chances of winning."      — Sandhya Menon, When Dimple Met Rishi, 2017    has this page helped you understand "decimate"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "decimate" without saying "slash" or "annihilate." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "(At a certain time), (some terrible force) decimated (something)." Example 1: "In 1998, a tornado decimated our neighborhood." Example 2: "In The Amber Spyglass, an invading herd of enormous white water birds decimates the mulefa settlement, devouring the food, destroying the supplies, and demolishing the homes." If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for this month is "Provocative Verbs." Check out the headline below. Originally, it included some highly emotional verb, like "bushwhack," "agonize," or "soar." But I've swapped it out for an emotionless one. Try to restore the strong feelings that the headline originally evoked by choosing your own highly emotional verb to swap back in. For example, instead of "St. Jude Keeps Billions While Many of Its Families Use Their Savings," you might come up with "St. Jude Hoards Billions While Many of Its Families Drain Their Savings," the original provocative headline from ProPublica.  Scroll all the way down to see the original headline. You might think of the same verbs as the original writers did, or yours might be even spicier.  Try this one today: From NPR: "Experts figure out the secret to last letter of Mary, Queen of Scots before her execution." review this word: 1. The near opposite of DECIMATION is A. PROLIFERATION: a rapid growth or increase. B. ACCLAMATION: an expression of strong approval. C. EXASPERATION: a feeling of intense or violent annoyance. 2. In Florida in the 1960s, the _____ was nearly decimated by _____. A. tourist industry .. state fairs B. alligator population .. hunters C. business of journalism .. the harebrained antics of Florida Man Answers to the review questions: 1. A 2. B From the game, the original headline: "Experts crack the secret to last letter of Mary, Queen of Scots before her execution." a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.