Word of the Day

: January 22, 2007

decrement

noun DEK-ruh-munt

What It Means

1 : a gradual decrease in quality or quantity

2 : the quantity lost by diminution or waste

decrement in Context

The participants in the sleep deprivation study experienced a decrement in cognitive abilities as the night wore on.

Did You Know?

Even if you've never seen "decrement" before, you might be familiar with "increment," a word for the action or process of increasing or for something that is gained or added. "Increment" arrived in English, after a rather circuitous route involving Anglo-French, from the Latin verb "increscere," meaning "to increase." So it should come as no surprise that "decrement" derives from the Latin verb "decrescere," meaning "to decrease." Both words can be traced further back to the verb "crescere," which means "to grow." Like "increment," "decrement" can also have the (much rarer) mathematical sense of "a change in the value of one or more of a set of variables," but "increment" is used for both positive and negative changes, and "decrement" only for negative ones.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.