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Definitions

decimate

[des-uh-meyt] / ˈdɛs əˌmeɪt /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Opponents say the sharp reduction or elimination of property taxes would decimate funding for key areas, including education, public safety and infrastructure.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 2, 2026

He also called concerns that AI will decimate jobs worldwide "complete nonsense".

From Barron's Jun. 1, 2026

Investors have also been piling into bond markets on fears that AI advances will decimate the job market, while hotter-than-expected producer prices have clouded hopes for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.

From MarketWatch Feb. 28, 2026

Critics of the plans say the changes will decimate the Samaritans' work in local communities and have accused the charity's leadership of repeatedly ignoring requests to provide the rationale for the plans.

From BBC Sep. 25, 2025

To decimate once meant “to slaughter every tenth one,” although it’s rarely used literally these days.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

Snaring decimates wildlife populations and has pushed many larger mammals to local or even global extinction.

From Science Daily Jun. 3, 2024

A farm group has called on the Federal Trade Commission to launch a price-gouging probe into the country’s top egg producer as avian flu decimates the number of hens nationwide.

From Washington Times Jan. 24, 2023

Coffee leaf rust is a fungus that decimates coffee plants, often leaving farmers with few choices: cut down their crop and replant, plant something else, or give up the farm.

From Seattle Times Nov. 2, 2021

He marries, has children and watches helplessly as the plague decimates his family.

From New York Times Oct. 21, 2021

They also procured, with much difficulty and at a high price, a quantity of lemons, for preventing or curing the scurvy, that terrible disease which decimates crews in the icy regions.

From A Winter Amid the Ice and Other Thrilling Stories by Verne, Jules

From "heatwave simulators" to ecological bootcamps, scientists and conservationists are trying ways to revive and reinforce the famous coral reefs off Japan's Okinawa, decimated by climate-driven bleaching two summers ago.

From Barron's Jul. 29, 2026

Boycotts of U.S. whiskey have decimated a key economic driver for the American South.

From Slate Jul. 21, 2026

Past marine heat waves have decimated California’s kelp, “with bull kelp habitats declining 90% in Northern California since 2014,” Jaros said.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 15, 2026

She has seen the bulk of the 2026 season decimated by a viral illness and this was only her second match back after more than two months away from tour action.

From BBC May 24, 2026

Unsurprisingly, the adult section had been decimated by looters; my choices seemed limited to hunting gear and industrial jumpsuits.

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

Following a string of already tumultuous years, restaurants in Boyle Heights watch the skies for signs of hope during a weeklong warehouse fire that’s decimating business.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 24, 2026

Ukraine, whose conventional navy, like Iran’s, has been largely destroyed, has used naval drones to target Russian warships, decimating the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 26, 2026

The rapper’s overhaul of the dwelling saw it reduced to little more than a concrete shell, decimating almost all of Ando’s original design—and leaving design lovers up in arms over its destruction.

From MarketWatch Dec. 11, 2025

The unique Bandon initiative in the country's south could provide a model for tackling Ireland's biggest environmental dilemma: how to cut emissions on farms without drastically shrinking herds or decimating rural communities.

From Barron's Nov. 11, 2025

Smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, bubonic plague, and other infectious diseases endemic in Europe played a decisive role in European conquests, by decimating many peoples on other continents.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond




Vocabulary lists containing decimate


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