decade

«decade» in Mova's school dictionary: a period of ten years — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a decade, decades)

meaning for a pupil

1) A decade is a period of ten years. tree →

2) A decade is also a group of ten, like ten beads on a rosary. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths and history lessons it is used to measure time: one decade = 10 years, two decades = 20 years. It tells the reader a long time has passed. Phrases: for decades, over the past decade, a decade ago, the next decade.

examples

• A decade is ten years. tree →
• My grandparents have lived in this house for five decades. tree →
• The old tree has grown a lot over the last decade. tree →
• Two decades equal twenty years. tree →
• My mum hasn't seen her cousin for a decade. tree →
• The town has changed a lot in the past decade. tree →
• If a tree grows 30 centimetres a year, it grows 300 centimetres in a decade. tree →

note

Countable: a decade, decades. In maths: 1 decade = 10 years; 1 century = 100 years = 10 decades. «Decades» alone means «many years» (at least twenty). Do not confuse with «decayed» (rotted).

In the corpora

• Okean Elzy is a Ukrainian rock band formed in 1994 and popular for decades.
• Bamboo flowers and dies all at once every few decades, so pandas need several kinds of bamboo nearby.
• An elephant family is led by its oldest female, the matriarch, who remembers water holes, paths and dangers over decades.
• In London sparrow numbers fell by about two-thirds in a few decades, and scientists still argue why.
• Grown-ups need friends too, and many keep best friends for decades.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «decade» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.