decrement

noun

dec·​re·​ment ˈde-krə-mənt 

1

: a gradual decrease in quality or quantity

2

a

: the quantity lost by diminution or waste

b

: the amount of decrease (as of a variable)

decremental

ˌde-krə-ˈmen-tᵊl 

adjective

Did you know?

Even if you've never seen "decrement" before, you might be familiar with "increment," a word for the action or process of increasing or for something that is gained or added. "Increment" arrived in English, after a rather circuitous route involving Anglo-French, from the Latin verb increscere, meaning "to increase." So it should come as no surprise that decrement derives from the Latin verb decrescere, meaning "to decrease." Both words can be traced further back to the verb "crescere," which means "to grow." Like "increment," "decrement" can also have the (much rarer) mathematical sense of "a change in the value of one or more of a set of variables," but "increment" is used for both positive and negative changes, and "decrement" only for negative ones.

Synonyms

• abatement
• decline
• decrease
• dent
• depletion
• depression
• diminishment
• diminution
• drop
• drop-off
• fall
• falloff
• loss
• reduction
• shrinkage
• step-down

Examples of decrement in a Sentence

each decrement in amount is limited to one third of the previous total

Recent Examples on the Web

The increment of fitness gain of the former happens to have been greater than the decrement entailed by the latter, resulting in the simultaneous increase in the frequency of both the fit and unfit variants. —Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 26 Aug. 2011

Faced with out-of-bounds readings for the radar’s hardware, each CDU began to issue radar increment and decrement interrupts to the guidance computer—lots of interrupts. —Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, 5 July 2019

Although the marijuana brownies caused significant decrements in participants’ attentiveness, physical coordination and ability to concentrate, only 11 percent of them ever had a THC blood level over the legal limit. —Keith Humphreys, The Cannabist, 31 May 2017

Word History

Etymology

Latin decrementum, from decrescere

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

decrement

noun

dec·​re·​ment ˈdek-rə-mənt 

: a gradual loss or the amount lost