# How Long Is a Decade And a Century? **URL:** \ **Category:** Education\ **Created:** [April 28, 2020, 9:49am UTC](https://howtodiscuss.com/t/how-long-is-a-decade-and-a-century/49 "2020-04-28T09:49:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![muhammad\_ali](https://howtodiscuss.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@muhammad\_ali](https://howtodiscuss.com/u/muhammad_ali)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://howtodiscuss.com/t/how-long-is-a-decade-and-a-century/49/7 "2021-02-10T19:10:54Z")
**The term decade became part of the English vocabulary in 1590 officially. It is significantly used to refer to every ten years in a century.** For example, the 1680s denotes the time between 1680-1689. In the Georgian calendar, decades indicate different periods. The difference between the Georgian calendar and the standard calendar appears while determining a specific decade in a century. ## How long is a Decade? The use of the term decades symbolizes ten years. It makes it possible for humanity to distinguish major historical events easily. Decades allow human beings to identify specific past events quickly. For example, when we speak of the 40s or 30s, it means the 1940s and 1930s, respectively. ### Describe Decades Every decade has derived a nickname from significant events during that period. One example in US history is the ‘roaring twenties,’ which implies the period in the 1920s. During this period, many cultural changes and economic growth took place. The term decade is used to identify the period when Japan’s financial market collapsed in the 1990s. The period was recognized as the lost decade after the Second World War. The crisis persisted for almost a decade, and it still affects the Japanese business market. ### Significance of a Decade Almost all historical incidents are divided into decades; this makes it easier for people to distinguish events occurring at a specific time in the past. In addition to the historical events, age can also be classified into decades. ### Why are Decades 10 Years Long? The word decade is taken from the Greek word ‘dekas,’ which means a group of ten. The Romans used the word decade and the prefix dec- to identify items grouped in tens: Decagon or decathlon. The two terms express a collection of ten things. This word dec- was then incorporated into the calendar, showing the timing of 10 years. ## How Long is a Century? A century is a period that lasts 100 years, such as the 19th or 20th century. The years from 1901 to 2000 are regarded as the 19th century. Whereas a bicentennial is 200 years. ### Start and end of centuries Although a century spans an arbitrary period of 100 years, there are two points of view on the character of standard centuries. One is based on strict construction, whereas the other is based on popular perception. According to the first point of view, the 1st century AD began in 1 AD and ended in 100 AD, while the same model continues. In this model, the \*n-\*th century starts with the year ending with “01” and ends with the year ending with “00”. For this reason, a century only includes one year, the centennial year, that starts with the century’s number. For example, 1900 was the last year of the 19th century. According to famous observation and practice, centuries are frequently structured by grouping years based on their shared digits. According to this model, the nth century starts with the year ending in “00” and ends with the year that ends in “99”. For example, the 20th century is complete from 1900 to 1999. ## Other Terms for Different Time Durations - Millennium is used to express 1000 years. - Megaannum is used to describe one million years. - 2 weeks is called a fortnight - A score refers to 20 years, while a lustrum is used for five years. - A short span of 2, 3, or 4 years is given as a biennium, triennium, and quadrennium, respectively. --- _[View the full topic](https://howtodiscuss.com/t/how-long-is-a-decade-and-a-century/49)._