Word.ws English Dictionary

vicesimation

UK/ˌvaɪsiːsɪˈmeɪʃən/

vicesimation noun: the destruction of one-twentieth of something; especially, the killing or putting to death of every twentieth person, especially by lot.

Noun

vicesimation (countable and uncountable, plural vicesimations)

  1. (rare) The destruction of one-twentieth of something; especially, the killing or putting to death of every twentieth person, especially by lot.
    • The common prisoners…were ordered to cast lots for every twentieth man to be tried, as a sort of vicesimation.1834, Samuel Hibbert et al., History of the Foundations in Manchester of Chirst’s College, Chetham’s Hospital, and the Free Grammar School, volume 2, page 124
    • We must change the numerator of our fraction.…If one must have the precise fractional term in “ation,” and the loss is one in five, let him coin the word quintation…if one in twenty, vicesimation.1901, Joseph Fitzgerald, Word and Phrase: True and False Use in English, page 273

Forms of vicesimation

pluralvicesimations
alternative formvigesimation

Origin of vicesimation

Probably formed by the suffixation of the Latin vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) with the English -ation on the pattern of decimation, but compare the Latin vīcēsimātiō (“a killing of every twentieth man”); the spelling vigesimation is an alteration of vicesimation under the influence of vigesimal.

Questions about vicesimation

What does vicesimation mean?
Vicesimation means the destruction of one-twentieth of something; especially, the killing or putting to death of every twentieth person, especially by lot.
What part of speech is vicesimation?
Vicesimation is a noun.
How do you pronounce vicesimation?
Vicesimation is pronounced /ˌvaɪsiːsɪˈmeɪʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of vicesimation?
The plural of vicesimation is vicesimations.

Words near vicesimation in the dictionary

  1. viceroys
  2. viceroyship
  3. viceroyships
  4. vices
  5. vicesimal
  6. vicesimation
  7. vicesimations
  8. vicesimo-quarto
  9. vicey versey
  10. vich
  11. Vichada

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vicesimation (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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Cite this entry: “vicesimation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vicesimation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.