decadence
/ˈdɛkədəns/
decadence noun: a state of moral or artistic decline or deterioration; decay.
Noun
decadence (countable and uncountable, plural decadences)
- A state of moral or artistic decline or deterioration; decay
- "Stability, however, is not enough. It leads too easily to stagnation, and thence to decadence."1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 35
- The quality of being luxuriously self-indulgent.
- the decadence of a five-star hotel
decadence meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
decadence in Hindi
- state of moral or artistic decline or deterioration
- पतन patan, ह्रास hrās, ह्रासोन्मुखता hrāsonmukhtā, क्षयिष्णुता kṣayiṣṇutā, गिरावट girāvaṭ
decadence in Urdu
- گراوٹ, زوال, تنزلی, ابتری
decadence in Bengali
- নৈতিক অবক্ষয়, পতন
decadence in Malayalam
- ജീർണ്ണനം, സദാചാരത്തിനും മറ്റുമുളള ഇടിച്ചിൽ, അധോഗതി, ഗതി
More languagesFewer languages
- decadence in Kannada
- ಇಳಿಕೆ, ಅವನತಿ
- decadence in Punjabi
- ਖਉ khau
- decadence in Arabic
- اضمحلال iḍmiḥlāl
- decadence in Thai
- ความเสื่อมโทรม kwaam-sʉ̀ʉam-soom
Examples of decadence in a sentence
- What has obsessed the Irishman with thanatophilia — this love of death, decadence and decay?
- It once seemed that the height of plate-lunch decadence was the hyphenated gut bomb called the chicken katsu-curry.
- This crisis is not a healthy one, but a sickness unto death, a decadence that threatens to destroy our society.
Forms of decadence
| plural | decadences |
|---|
Origin of decadence
From French décadence, from Medieval Latin decadentia (“decay”), from *decadens (“decaying”), present participle of *decadere (“to decay”); see decay.
Questions about decadence
- What does decadence mean?
- Decadence means a state of moral or artistic decline or deterioration; decay.
- What is decadence in Hindi?
- Decadence in Hindi is पतन (patan), ह्रास (hrās), ह्रासोन्मुखता (hrāsonmukhtā). See Decadence meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is decadence?
- Decadence is a noun.
- How do you pronounce decadence?
- Decadence is pronounced /ˈdɛkədəns/ (UK).
- What is the plural of decadence?
- The plural of decadence is decadences.
Words near decadence in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: decadence (page history and authors); decadence (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Decadence (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); decadence (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); decadence (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖਉ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-decadence.wav.
Cite this entry: “decadence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/decadence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.