DECADE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does decade mean? 

• DECADE (noun)
  The noun DECADE has 2 senses:

1. a period of 10 years

2. the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the base of the decimal system

  Familiarity information: DECADE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DECADE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A period of 10 years

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

decade; decennary; decennium

Hypernyms ("decade" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Meronyms (parts of "decade"):

twelvemonth; year; yr (a period of time containing 365 (or 366) days)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "decade"):

1530s (the decade from 1530 to 1539)

1790s (the decade from 1790 to 1799)

1890s; nineties (the decade from 1890 to 1899)

1990s; nineties (the decade from 1990 to 1999)

1780s (the decade from 1780 to 1789)

1880s; eighties (the decade from 1880 to 1889)

1980s; eighties (the decade from 1980 to 1989)

1770s (the decade from 1770 to 1779)

1870s (the decade from 1870 to 1879)

1970s; seventies (the decade from 1970 to 1979)

1760s (the decade from 1760 to 1769)

1860s (the decade from 1860 to 1869)

1960s; sixties (the decade from 1960 to 1969)

1750s (the decade from 1750 to 1759)

1850s (the decade from 1850 to 1859)

1950s; fifties (the decade from 1950 to 1959)

1840s (the decade from 1840 to 1849)

1940s; forties (the decade from 1940 to 1949)

1830s (the decade from 1830 to 1839)

1930s; thirties (the decade from 1930 to 1939)

1820s (the decade from 1820 to 1829)

1920s; twenties (the decade from 1920 to 1929)

1900s (the decade from 1900 to 1909)

Holonyms ("decade" is a part of...):

century (a period of 100 years)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the base of the decimal system

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

10; decade; ten; tenner; X

Hypernyms ("decade" is a kind of...):

large integer (an integer equal to or greater than ten)

 Context examples 

"The dunes are active again," says D'Odorico, "and it's happened in just the last three to four decades."

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

Clinical signs of inherited deficiencies present within the first decade of life and are consistent with the signs of recurrent systemic infection or immune complex disease.

(Complement Deficiency, NCI Thesaurus)

But their seasons are much longer than on Earth, spanning decades rather than months.

(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)

The tumor usually presents in the first decade of life with signs of increased intracranial pressure including HEADACHES; ATAXIA; DIPLOPIA; and alterations of mental status.

(Choroid Plexus Papilloma, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

It presents most commonly in the first two decades of life.

(Childhood Brain Stem Glioma, NCI Thesaurus)

Despite decades of effort there have been, until now, only scant insights into its biological mechanisms.

(Forty-Four Genomic Variants Linked to Major Depression, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Sudden large-scale changes in plant populations, such as the tree die-offs observed worldwide in recent decades, could affect the rate at which climate changes.

(What's killing trees during droughts?, National Science Foundation)

Teams have been trying to clone monkeys for decades, but primate DNA is notoriously difficult to work with.

(Healthy cloned monkeys born in Shanghai, Wikinews)

The past decade has seen many studies into the health effects of chocolate.

(Can Chocolate Really Be Good for You?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The prognosis is poor with survival outside the first decade unlikely.

(Alper Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)