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decimate

[des-uh-mayt] / 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

Software stocks dropped on Friday after digital-payments company Block announced it is slashing more than 4,000 employees — further fueling fears that artificial intelligence could decimate employee head counts and hurt demand for software.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 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

Farmers say it forces them to wait precious days for a servicer to arrive, a delay that could mean a hail storm decimates a crop or a farmer misses the ideal planting window.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2023

In “The Last of Us” episode, Bill and Frank meet four years after a mysterious mutant cordyceps outbreak decimates humanity — not necessarily the ideal time for a meet-cute.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2023

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

It takes them wherever it can find them, from the faction which decimated it before Thermidor and which, since Thermidor, it decimates.

From The French Revolution - Volume 3 by John Durand

The rise of Japanese low-cost SLR cameras decimated the German industry in the 1960s and 1970s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

Almost 250 people died, while vineyards, orange groves and plots used to grow Albufera rice, an essential paella ingredient, were decimated.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

Last year, the company decimated the staff of the Merced Sun-Star, leaving it with one journalist funded through a university grant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

The floods - which decimated parts of Nepal on Wednesday and have left at least 2,426 people missing - saw the school building buried under mud and debris.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

As predicted, it swooped through the decimated doorway without knocking so much as a sliver of stone from the medieval walls.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer

In a long career before his death in August, at the age of 92, the agrarian writer Wendell Berry argued that modern agriculture was decimating family farms, hollowing out rural communities and poisoning the planet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

"He was very good at just decimating your ability to make your own decisions and have your own autonomy. And it made you more and more dependent on him," she said.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 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 ● Mar. 3, 2026

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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