decade
/ˈdɛkeɪd/noun
decade is spelled D-E-C-A-D-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, decade means “A group, set, or series of ten , particularly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of decade is decades.
How many letters and syllables are in decade?
| Letters | 6: D-E-C-A-D-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 33 times per million words; the 2,888th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is decade?
Decade appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce decade?
- UK /ˈdɛkeɪd/
- UK /dəˈkeɪd/
- US /ˈdɛkeɪd/
Decade has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-decade.ogg, En-au-decade.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of decade
- decades plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does decade mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A group, set, or series of ten , particularly
a decade of soldiers
- 2
A period of ten years , particularly such a period beginning with a year ending in 0 and ending with a year ending in 9.
The 1960s was a turbulent decade.
- 3
A period of ten days, particularly those in the ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and French Revolutionary calendars.
- 4
archaicA work in ten parts or books, particularly such divisions of Livy's History of Rome.
- 5
A series of prayers counted on a rosary, typically consisting of an Our Father, followed by ten Hail Marys, and concluding with a Glory Be and sometimes the Fatima Prayer.
- 6
Any of the sets of ten sequential braille characters with predictable patterns.
- 7
A set of ten electronic devices used to represent digits.
- 8
A set of resistors, capacitors, etc. connected so as to provide even increments between one and ten times a base electrical resistance.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Decade in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dizaine, décade , décennie |
| German | Dekade , Jahrzehnt, Dezennium |
| Portuguese | dezena , década, decênio |
| Spanish | década , decenio, decenario |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does decade come from?
From Middle English decade, from Old French decade, from Late Latin decādem (“(set of) ten”), from Ancient Greek δεκάς (dekás), from δέκα (déka, “ten”). In reference to a span of ten years, originally a clipping of the phrase decade of years. By surface analysis, dec- + -ade. Doublet of decad and dekad.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).