Help! Vocab and Best wishes.

[Rachel Caldecott]

I know between you, you all know everything. So... what is bigger than decimate? If decimate means kill 10 for every 1, what is the word for killing 100 or 1000 for 1? I'm assuming 'centimate' and 'millimate'. But are those acceptable words to Joe Public? My sentence (an extract from a fake history textbook) is this: The hub of the Western Empire, the United States of America, split apart and the population was decimated.

Thank you. On that note, while I'm here, I'd just like to say Happy New Year to you all.

 

[Barbara]

The hub of the Western Empire, the United States of America, split apart and half of the population was wiped out ... but that might be a tad too dramatic.

Slaughtered by the thousands ... hmmm, maybe not.

Massacred in masses …

Happy New Year

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Decimate meant the other way round, to kill every one in ten soldiers as a punishment for defeat or mutiny.

But is now used as a synonym for devastation.

So, if you are using it in THAT looser, modern sense, devastation, not decimation in the original, technical sense, you probably need to stick with decimate/decimation.

 

[Leonora]

I agree with Katie -Ellen. I would accept decimate as a general term for devastation.