Word of the Day

: April 27, 2025

decimate

verb DESS-uh-mayt

What It Means

Decimate can mean both “to destroy a large number of (plants, animals, people, etc.)” or “to severely damage or destroy a large part of (something).”

// The bay’s lobsters have been decimated by disease.

// Budget cuts have decimated public services throughout the state.

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decimate in Context

“The deer—and there is an abundance of those animals this year—got into my beans and within a few nights they had all but decimated my crop. Tracks showed that at least half a dozen whitetails were invading the garden every night.” — Donnie Johnston, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 6 Aug. 2024

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.