Duodecade
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A period of twelve years.
"Each Chinese New Year during a "Jupiter return"—when a duodecade has passed and the Chinese zodiac animal of your birth year comes back around—it is expected that you find some red underwear to put on for the special occasion."
- 2 A period of two decades, a period of 20 years. nonstandard
"When I divide the past sixty years, 1706-65, into twenty-year periods, [I discover that] in the first duodecade, 702 people died, that is, an average of 35 a year. In the second period to 1745, 850, or 42i/$ each year, perished."
Example
More examples"Each Chinese New Year during a "Jupiter return"—when a duodecade has passed and the Chinese zodiac animal of your birth year comes back around—it is expected that you find some red underwear to put on for the special occasion."
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin duodecas (“twelve”), from Ancient Greek δυωδεκάς (duōdekás, “twelve”). Equivalent to duodec- + -ade.
From duo- + decade.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.