decimation

1. 1.

   destroying or killing a large part of the population (literally every tenth person as chosen by lot)

   Broaderdestruction

Other forms of decimation

plural

decimations·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about decimation

What does decimation mean?

decimation means "destroying or killing a large part of the population (literally every tenth person as chosen by lot)".

How many syllables are in decimation?

decimation has 4 syllables: dec-i-ma-tion. The stress falls on "dec". In IPA it is /ˈdɛsəˌmeɪʃən/.

Is decimation a common word?

decimation is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with decimation?

29 words rhyme with decimation. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.