decimation
/ˌdɛsɪˈmeɪʃən/
"decimation" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“decimation” is an uncommon English word, ranked #62,828 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #62,828
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | decimation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌdɛsɪˈmeɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #62,828 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “decimation” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for decimation is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌdɛsɪˈmeɪʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #62,828 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for decimation, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin decimātiō, a punishment where every 10th man in a unit would be stoned to death by the men who were spared. Used by the Romans to keep order in their military. Compare septimation and vicesimation. The correct English form is decimation, spelled D-E-C-I-M-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot.
- 2The killing or destruction of any large portion of a population.
- 3A tithe or the act of tithing.
- 4The creation of a new sequence comprising only every nth element of a source sequence.
- 5The creation of a new sequence comprising only every nth element of a source sequence.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin decimātiō, a punishment where every 10th man in a unit would be stoned to death by the men who were spared. Used by the Romans to keep order in their military. Compare septimation and vicesimation.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “decimation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-C-I-M-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌdɛsɪˈmeɪʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.