Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DECALOGUE

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pronounce DECALOGUE: Say it "DECK uh log." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: From Mel Brooks's History of the World: Part I: Ten! Ten commandments for all to obey! A decalogue. You'll recognize the word's similarity to others involving the number ten, like decade and dec_____, originally "to kill 10% of" but now usually meaning "to destroy." And you'll recognize its similarity to words about words! Or speech, or stories. Like logic, apology, eulogy, trilogy, analogy, and n__logism ("a new word, a new phrase, or an old word with a new meaning"). (If you're into n__logisms, I hope you'll play New Word Order, the free print-and-play card game that arose from my obsession with n__logisms.) Can you recall the words with the blanks? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: In Greek, the phrase hoi deka logoi means "the ten commandments." And for many centuries in English, the Decalogue, with a capital D, has meant "the ten commandments listed in the Bible," the ones from the book of Exodus. ("Thou shall not kill," "Thou shall not steal" and so on.) We still very often refer to this specific Decalogue. With a lowercase "d," a decalogue can be any group of ten basic, important rules. And if you're not a strict rule-follower about word choice, you can refer to something as a decalogue even if it has around ten rules rather than exactly ten. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Noun, the countable kind: "Does the Decalogue allow this?" "Elle Woods adheres strictly to the decalogue of hair care." Other forms:  The plural is "decalogues." If people talk or write often about the Decalogue, call them Decalogists. how to use it: Whether you're being serious or silly, you can pick the word "decalogue" to give your comment a weighty, religious tone. You might talk about the decalogue of or for things or people: "a decalogue of Disney employee culture," the decalogue of throwing a dinner party," "a decalogue for writers of pulp fiction," "the decalogue for Boy Scouts." And you might talk about people obeying, reciting, renouncing, violating, interpreting, or rewriting decalogues. examples: "COVID-19 and Cities: from Urban Health strategies to the pandemic challenge. A Decalogue of Public Health opportunities."    — Title of a report by Stefano Capolongo, Andrea Rebecchi, Maddalena Buffoli, Letizia Appolloni, Carlo Signorelli, Gaetano Maria Fara, and Daniela D’Alessandro, National Institutes of Health, 11 May 2020 "The habits that people in and around Washington see as the essence of 'American global leadership.' Prominent among these are: (1) positioning U.S. forces in hundreds of bases abroad; ... and easily outpacing all other nations, friend and foe alike, in (9) weapons sales and (10) overall military spending. Complementing this Decalogue, inscribed not on two tablets but in thousands of pages of stupefyingly bureaucratic prose, is an unwritten eleventh commandment..."    — Andrew Bacevich, Salon, 4 November 2019 has this page helped you understand "decalogue"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "decalogue" without saying "ten simple rules" or "list of 'thou shalt nots.'" try it out: Fill in the blanks: "In the decalogue of _____, the first rule is '_____.'" Example: "In the decalogue of Girl World, the first rule is 'You can't wear a tank top two days in a row.'" If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for March is "Yup, that's a real word." Check out the definition of a silly-sounding word--yes, a real one, from the Oxford English Dictionary--and see if you can come up with the word itself. To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Here's an example: "This three-syllable noun ending in the -ship suffix (as in 'friendship' and 'fellowship') means 'skill in traversing snow.'" The answer is "snowmanship." (Yup, that’s a real word!) Try this one today: This unsettling six-syllable noun means "enthusiasm or obsessive passion for balloons and ballooning." review this word: 1. The opposite of FOLLOWING A DECALOGUE could be A. FOLLOWING YOUR HEART. B. MAKING UP ALL YOUR OWN RULES. C. MARCHING TO THE BEAT OF A DIFFERENT DRUMMER. 2. Kids know the decalogue of environmentalism: they know _____. A. Al Gore and Rachel Carson B. to recycle, to plant trees, and to never litter C. that carbon emissions must be reduced, or we're all doomed Answers to review questions: 1. B 2. B Answer to the game question: Balloonomania. Although I think it's mostly about the hot-air kind, if you're a birthday clown, I think you should list it as a strength on your resume. No explanation, just a bullet point: balloonomania. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.