decimation

/ˈdɛsəˌmeɪʃən/

Other forms: decimations

Decimation is the near-total destruction of a group, like the decimation of the candy bars that your brother was selling for school. Sorry, little brother!

Decimation implies that nearly all of a population has been destroyed or killed. You might be angry about the decimation of the rainforest in a region of South America or the decimation of the coral in a reef where you'd hoped to snorkel some day. This noun comes from a Late Latin root, decimationem, which means "removal of a tenth." In ancient Rome, decimation was a military punishment that involved killing one out of every ten soldiers.

Definitions of decimation

1. noun

   the destruction or killing of a large part of the population (literally every tenth person as chosen by lot)
   type of:

   destruction, devastation

   the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists