decadence

From French décadence, from Medieval Latin decadentia (“decay”), from *decadens (“decaying”), present participle of *decadere (“to decay”); see decay.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkədəns/

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decadence (countable and uncountable, plural decadences)

1. A state of moral or artistic decline or deterioration; decay
   • 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 35:

     "Stability, however, is not enough. It leads too easily to stagnation, and thence to decadence."

2. The quality of being luxuriously self-indulgent.

   the decadence of a five-star hotel

• decadent
• deciduous

• decadence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• decadence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911