Question

decimate Before the developments of modern medicine, diphtheria and typhoid could decimate the populations of entire towns and cities. ˈdɛsəˌmeɪt

Accepted Answer

To reduce drastically or destroy most of. Commanders in the Roman army took discipline seriously. Mutiny in the ranks was dealt with by selecting, through drawing lots, one soldier in every ten and making the other nine club or stone the unfortunate winner of this gruesome lottery to death. The dec- in decimate thus reflects this Roman practice, which was ordered by such well-known leaders as Crassus, Mark Antony, and Augustus. But over time, the word's meaning has shifted, and today it almost always describes great destruction or loss of life. So, for example, we can say that a wave of layoffs has decimated a company's workforce, the populations of some of Africa's greatest wild animals have been decimated by poaching, or aerial bombardment has decimated whole sections of a city.

word	decimate
definition	To reduce drastically or destroy most of.
eg_sentence	Before the developments of modern medicine, diphtheria and typhoid could decimate the populations of entire towns and cities.
explanation	Commanders in the Roman army took discipline seriously. Mutiny in the ranks was dealt with by selecting, through drawing lots, one soldier in every ten and making the other nine club or stone the unfortunate winner of this gruesome lottery to death. The dec- in decimate thus reflects this Roman practice, which was ordered by such well-known leaders as Crassus, Mark Antony, and Augustus. But over time, the word's meaning has shifted, and today it almost always describes great destruction or loss of life. So, for example, we can say that a wave of layoffs has decimated a company's workforce, the populations of some of Africa's greatest wild animals have been decimated by poaching, or aerial bombardment has decimated whole sections of a city.
IPA	ˈdɛsəˌmeɪt

Decimate Decimated Populations Roman Reduce Drastically Destroy Developments