Meaning of decima | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A tenth, particularly
2. A tithe or tax of one-tenth (now usually in historical Italian contexts).
3. A 10-line verse or stanza, (chiefly) in the form of a song comprising an introductory verse followed by four such divisions.
4. 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
5. 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
6. An organ stop a tenth above the normal 8-foot pitch.

Equivalents

Examples

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

“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.”

CEFR level