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Glite Dictionary
📝 A ten-line stanza 🔟 A tenth part
decima

decima

9.9
A group of ten lines in a poem often used in Spanish and Latin American traditions
  • noun
  • /ˈdɛsɪmə/
  • Literature
translation icon : décima
  • The poet crafted a beautiful decima that expressed the struggles of rural life in Latin America.

Examples

  • The very social types who debate each other in contrapuntos boast of their various talents in decimas sueltas, loose decimas known as brindis toasts.

    Academic text (1993)

  • In the old days, storytellers and decimistas, performers of decimas, used to entertain their friends and relatives in the evening after work.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The clergy, in particular, played an important role in establishing the decima in the mainstream of Chilean folklore.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The very social types who debate each other in contrapuntos boast of their various talents in decimas sueltas, loose decimas known as brindis toasts.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Decimas are improvised poems of ten verses; their contents relate to recent events or historic facts or criticize the political and social situation in a satirical way.

    Academic text (1996)

  • During the festival, several poets recited their own decimas, celebrating local traditions and legends.

  • In his last book, the author included a decima to showcase his admiration for the original Spanish form of poetry.

Synonyms

stanza
vsdecima
  • Literature
12 4.4

A group of lines in a poem that form one unit

is limited to a ten line unit common in Spanish and Latin American poetry

Surface Forms

decima singular
decimas plural

Etymology

Decima comes from the Latin root decimus, meaning 'tenth', the same root you see in decimal and decade. In Spanish and Latin American poetry a decima is simply a stanza of 'ten' lines, so the origin explains its ten-line form.