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
Mary Divine, Twin Cities, 24 May 2025
Noticing action was needed to protect the salamanders from being decimated under tire wheels along a main road, Vermont locals in Monkton decided to safeguard the wildlife there.
—Noël Fletcher, Forbes.com, 23 May 2025
Layoffs decimated the chronic disease prevention center at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Trump Administration cut a program that brought food to schools from local farms.
—Alana Semuels, Time, 22 May 2025
But publishers have worried that such a move could decimate traffic to their sites, since the chatbot mode won’t present the traditional list of blue links to external sites.
—Grady McGregor, New York Times, 21 May 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 4 Jun. 2025.
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decimate
verb
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