Decade
A decade (pronunciation: DEK-aid) is a period of 10 years. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word for ten: "deka". 10 decades make a century, while 100 decades make a millennium. A decade is any 10-year period: There are different ways to refer to different groupings of ten years. For example, the period from 2001 to 2010 can be described as the 1st decade of the 21st century, the period from 2011 to 2020 is the 2nd decade of the 21st century, and the 3rd decade of the 21st century is the period from 2021 to 2030. An individual who has been alive two full decades is referred to as being in their 20s for the next decade of their life, from age 20 to 29. Decades are also considered specific groups of ten years sharing the same tens digit, identified by name, as in the nineteen-eighties (1980s) referring to the period from 1980 to 1989 and the nineteen-nineties (1990s) referring to the period from 1990 to 1999. Sometimes this is shortened to just the decade, where the context is clear, as in the eighties (80s) or the nineties (90s). No apostrophe is used before the s in the names of these decades.