What does "decima" mean?

A tenth, particularly; A tithe or tax of one-tenth (now usually in historical Italian contexts).

What is a synonym for "decima"?

Common synonyms include: tenth, double tierce, double-tierce, great-tierce, morta, nona.

//ˈdɛsɪmə// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A tenth, particularly; A tithe or tax of one-tenth (now usually in historical Italian contexts).
"He brandished his title as apostolic commissioner in court, and as supervisor of the papal decima in Tuscany."
2
A 10-line verse or stanza, (chiefly) in the form of a song comprising an introductory verse followed by four such divisions.
"His album... dealt with the song form of Puerto Rican back-country troubadours, and it had a preoccupation with... the décima, a 10-line stanza with specific rhyme schemes."
3
A tenth, particularly; A tenth: a note nine degrees of the scale above or below a given note (and thus ten degrees separate counting inclusively) or the interval between such notes. obsolete
4
A tenth, particularly; An organ stop a tenth above the normal 8-foot pitch.

Proper Noun

1
One of the three Fates, or Parcae, daughter of Jupiter and Justitia; the measurer of the thread of life. She is the Roman equivalent of Lachesis. Roman

"He brandished his title as apostolic commissioner in court, and as supervisor of the papal decima in Tuscany."

Etymology 1

From Latin meaning "the tenth".

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin decima (“a tenth”), now particularly via Italian decima. Doublet of decim, decime, and dime.

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Spanish décima, from Latin decima (“a tenth”). Doublet of decim, decime, and dime.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.