Decades vs Decay - What's the difference?

decades | decay |

As nouns the difference between decades and decay

is that decades is while decay is the process or result of being gradually decomposed.

As a verb decay is

to deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.

decades

English

Noun

(head)

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-17, volume=408, issue=8849, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= One nation, behind bars , passage=For decades American politicians have assumed that mass incarceration works, wooing voters with ever-tougher sentencing laws. The dramatic fall in crime since the 1990s has persuaded many that they were right. Locking up the worst criminals while they are young, fit and dangerous clearly makes America safer. But keeping sad cases ----

decay

English

(wikipedia decay)

Noun

The process or result of being gradually decomposed.

* 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X

I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable. It struck me as singularly odd, that among the universal decay , this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousand years.

A deterioration of condition.

Derived terms

* bacterial decay * decayability * decayable * decayer * orbital decay * particle decay * radioactive decay

Verb

(en verb)

To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.

The pair loved to take pictures in the decaying hospital on forty-third street.

# (intransitive, electronics, of storage media or the data on them) To undergo , that is, gradual degradation.

# (intransitive, computing, of software) To undergo , that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment,so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.

# (intransitive, physics, of a satellite's orbit) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).

2009 , Francis Lyall, Paul B. Larsen, Space Law: A Treatise , page 120:

Damaged on lift-off, Skylab was left in orbit until its orbit decayed .

(of organic material) To rot, to go bad.

The cat's body decayed rapidly.

(intransitive, transitive, physics, chemistry, of an unstable atom) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons.

* 2005 , Encyclopedia of Earth Science (edited by Timothy M. Kusky; ISBN 0-8160-4973-4), page 349:

Uranium decays to radium through a long series of steps with a cumulative half-life of 4.4 billion years.

(intransitive, transitive, physics, of a quantum system) To undergo , that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon.

(aviation)

To cause to rot or deteriorate.

The extreme humidity decayed the wooden sculptures in the museum's collection in a matter of years.

* Shakespeare

Infirmity, that decays the wise.

External links

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