Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Appropriateness of behavior or conduct; propriety: "In the Ireland of the 1940's ... the stolidity of a long, empty, grave face was thought to be the height of decorum and profundity” ( John McGahern).
- n. The conventions or requirements of polite behavior: the formalities and decorums of a military funeral.
- n. The appropriateness of an element of an artistic or literary work, such as style or tone, to its particular circumstance or to the composition as a whole.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Propriety of speech, behavior, or dress; formal politeness; orderliness; seemliness; decency.
- n. In general, fitness, suitableness, or propriety of anything, with respect to occasion, purpose, or use.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable Appropriate social behavior; propriety
- n. countable A convention of social behavior
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Propriety of manner or conduct; grace arising from suitableness of speech and behavior to one's own character, or to the place and occasion; decency of conduct; seemliness; that which is seemly or suitable.
WordNet 3.0
- n. propriety in manners and conduct
Etymologies
- From Latin decōrus ("proper, decent"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin decōrum, from decōrus, becoming, handsome; see decorous. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Is not the cant sometimes on the side of those who are so anxious for what they call decorum?”
“(world, from an attention to what it calls decorum; and the preferable nature of truth and sincerity) Tj”
“Was it Mondale who made finger pointing by politicians unclassy, bad manners or lacking in decorum?”
“Though it is somewhat difficult to retain decorum about this issue, I must tell you that if anyone had walked into our Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and told us that someday, in this great nation we were founding, citizens would be put in jail for possessing this great herb, we would have laughed them out of the room.”
The Huffington Post: Harvey Wasserman: George Washington Orders All Californians to Legalize Pot
“The real 'breach of decorum' is having a Democrat reaching in my wallet every time I turn around.”
“I deal with thepanese almost every week and Obama just embarrassed us yet again in front of a country where such lack of decorum is taken very seriously.”
President Obama's Controversial Greeting with the Emperor of Japan
“When one loses an election, the proper decorum is to concede and help the winning candidate.”
Clinton Stumps for Obama in Nevada - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“But you have to understand that Congress is a place where a certain decorum is expected.”
“Not that the trifles of decorum is of any consequence but when one defines themselves with the need of always being “right,” someone or something has to always be wrong.”
“Laws are being written now because humanity has gotten so base that the kind of respect Jeff desires and demands in his own home, once a part of public decorum, is often no longer shown in public.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘decorum’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Not in the Periodic Table
Words that sound like they might be the names of elements of the periodic table, but that aren't. Many of the words listed here were actually proposed as names for substances their creators thought...
tentorium, columbarium, nasturtium, deuterium, caladium, valerian, concordium, synangium, chorium, geranium, hymenium, pyrenium and 310 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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GRE Study guide
Going through the Magoosh website, words I pulled from the verbal section. 2012.
magnanimous, correlate, anglicized, simulacrum, tantamount, obsequiousness, subterfuge, vehement, vociferous, benign, concomitant, veracity and 83 more...
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MUN Vocabulary
suspend, abstain, adjourn, agenda, amendment, binding, background guide, bloc, caucus, chair, dais, decorum and 41 more...
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Staggers vocab: The Heart is Lonely ...
deluge, volubility, blasphemy, acrid, raze, brooding, decorum
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for decorum.
quotato In accordance with its etymology, is that
which is becoming in outward act or appearance;
as,the decorum of a public assembly. Dignity springs from an inward elevation of soul producing a corresponding effect on the manners; as, dignity of personal appearance. Jan 2, 2008