ˈdeˌkād also deˈkād or də̇ˈkād or ˈdekə̇d; the last is most frequent in the sense “division of a rosary” and many who first learned the word in this sense use this pronunciation for all senses; since d and t are identically pronounced in certain intervocalic environments by most U S speakers, some who first learn the word aurally in a context such as “decade of the rosary” originally apprehend the last consonant letter as t and pronounce the word in all its occurrences as if the last consonant letter were t, making the plural for instance ˈdekə̇ts noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French décade, from Late Latin decad-, decas, from Greek dekad-, dekas, from deka
1.
a. : a group or set of 10
his prisoners were divided into decades — William Godwin
a decade of days
a decade of proposals
the fourth decade in a history
b. : a period of any 10 years
to last for a decade
especially : a 10-year period beginning with a year ending in 0 (as 1900-1909)
the decade of the twenties runs from January 1, 1920 to December 31, 1929
c. : one of the periods of a century divided in 10 calendric parts each beginning with a year ending in 1 (as 1901-10)
the third decade of the century runs from January 1, 1921 to December 31, 1930
d. : a division of the rosary usually consisting of one Our Father and 10 Hail Marys followed by the minor doxology ; also : one of the sets of rosary beads used to count these prayers and usually consisting of one large bead and 10 small beads
2.
a. : a ratio of 10 to 1 (as in the geometric progression 1, 10, 100, 1000 …)
b. : any one of the steps between sets of coils in a resistance box each coil of which has a resistance 10 times that of the corresponding coil in the preceding set