Meanings
plural vicesimations · alternative vigesimation
- countablerareuncountableThe destruction of one-twentieth of something; especially, the killing or putting to death of every twentieth person, especially by lot.
The common prisoners…were ordered to cast lots for every twentieth man to be tried, as a sort of vicesimation.
1834, Samuel Hibbert et al., History of the Foundations in Manchester of Chirst’s College, Chetham’s Hospital, and the Free Grammar School, volume 2, page 1241 more example
We must change the numerator of our fraction.…If one must have the precise fractional term in “ation,” and the loss is one in five, let him coin the word quintation…if one in twenty, vicesimation.
1901, Joseph Fitzgerald, Word and Phrase: True and False Use in English, page 273
Origin
- Latinvīcēsimus“twentieth”
- Englishvicesimation
Probably formed by the suffixation of the Latin vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) with the English -ation on the pattern of decimation, but compare the Latin vīcēsimātiō (“a killing of every twentieth man”); the spelling vigesimation is an alteration of vicesimation under the influence of vigesimal.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Welsh ugeiniant
- ugeiniantdestruction of one-twentieth; killing of every twentieth
Cite this entry
vicesimation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vicesimation
“vicesimation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vicesimation. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vicesimation,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vicesimation.
Source: vicesimation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.