decacorn

D2E1C3A1C3O1R1N1

noun

A private startup with a valuation of US$10 billion or greater.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

noundecacorn (plural decacorns)

plural decacorns

  1. businessA private startup with a valuation of US$10 billion or greater.

    It's not the only domestic decacorn (a unicorn at least ten times over) targeting a 2019 debut.

    2018 November 26, Alex Wilhelm, Savannah Dowling, “2019 Could Be The Year Of The Decacorn IPO”, in Crunchbase
    3 more examples

    Today, the delinquent decacorn of Silicon Valley announced Uber Freight, a bid to bring the ride hailing model to trucking.

    2017 May 18, Alex Davies, “With Uber Freight, Travis Takes On Trucking”, in Wired

    Indonesian ride-hailing service Go-Jek's value was estimated at $10 billion by a U.S. market intelligence company, putting it in the ranks of startups called decacorns.

    2019 April 6, Karlis Salna, “Go-Jek Joins 'Decacorn' Ranks With $10 Billion Valuation”, in Bloomberg

    Many of the biggest so-called decacorns, or privately held companies with valuations of at least $10 billion, have filed to go public in the past several months. Among them are Lyft, the ride-hailing company, and Pinterest, the digital pin board.

    2019 April 29, Michael J. de la Merced, Andrew Ross Sorkin, “WeWork Files for I.P.O., Joining Wave of Cash-Burning Start-Ups in Going Public”, in New York Times

Origin

From deca- (“ten”) + -corn (“horns”), by analogy with unicorn (literally “one horn”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French décacorne
  • décacorneTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

decacorn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decacorn

MLA

“decacorn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decacorn. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “decacorn,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decacorn.

Source: decacorn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.