decent

UK/ˈdiː.sənt/US/ˈdi.sənt/

adjectiveB24 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,152 of 15,258leans spoken

Decent means good enough — not brilliant, but no complaints. A decent cup of coffee, a decent night's sleep, a decent pair of boots that will see out the winter.

The other half of the word is about people, and there it means honest and fair: a decent man, the decent thing to do, decent of you to wait for me. It also means a fair amount of something — a decent crowd, a decent slice of cake, a decent wage. Then there is the clothes sense, half a joke now: are you decent? means are you dressed. Do the decent thing is what you say about someone who owns up, apologises or resigns when they should.

Definitions of decent

1adjectivedecentGood enough; of a reasonable standard.B2~82%
“We found a decent hotel near the station.”
synonyms: acceptable, reasonable
2adjectivehonestHonest, fair and kind.B2~2%
“He is a decent man — he would never leave you standing in the rain.”
3adjectivelargeFairly large in amount or size.B2~14%
“There was a decent turnout despite the weather.”
4adjectivewearingWearing enough clothes to be seen by other people.B2~2%
“Hang on a minute while I get decent.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

do the decent thing — to act honestly even when it costs you something

Where it comes from

Decent came through Middle French décent from Latin decēns, from decet, it is fitting or suitable, and behind that a Proto-Indo-European root *deḱ- meaning to accept or be suitable. Fitting is the whole idea: a decent meal fits the occasion and a decent person does what fits. The warm sense of kind and pleasant only arrived around 1902.

Proto-Indo-European
*deḱ- — to take, accept, to receive, greet, be suitable
Latin
decēns
Middle French
décent
English, today
decent

Built from

decet · Latin — it is fitting or suitable
δέχομαι · Ancient Greek — to accept
दाशति · Sanskrit — makes offerings, bestows

Middle French décent, or its source, Latin decēns, present participle of decet (“it is fitting or suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European deḱ- (“to take, accept, to receive, greet, be suitable”) (compare Ancient Greek δοκέω (“to appear, seem, think”), δέχομαι (“to accept”); Sanskrit दशस्यति (“shows honor, is gracious”), दाशति (“makes offerings, bestows”)). Meaning ‘kind, pleasant’ is from 1902.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

decent in the wild

At that time, Johanne found herself without sponsors and also without decent results.
Johanne Defay
Griffin congratulated them and invited them to share a meal: the first decent food, said Leal, that the group had in some weeks.
Operación 90
In its twelve U-23 and U-21 competitions, the team had a decent record, winning the first competition in 1972 and reaching the quarter-finals on seven occasions.
Czechoslovakia national under-21 football team
However, the weather and his fortunes turned around, and by 1870 he was producing both decent crop and a valuable herd of cattle.
Charles Henry Morrill
The Crimean War was the first war effort in which the modern army took part in, proving itself as a decent force.
Ottoman Army (1861–1922)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the decet family

decent

decent — used about once every 118 pages · #1,152 · point at the bar for the others

decency

Definitions of decent

1adjectivedecentGood enough; of a reasonable standard.B2~82%

“We found a decent hotel near the station.”

synonyms: acceptable, reasonable

2adjectivehonestHonest, fair and kind.B2~2%

“He is a decent man — he would never leave you standing in the rain.”

3adjectivelargeFairly large in amount or size.B2~14%

“There was a decent turnout despite the weather.”

4adjectivewearingWearing enough clothes to be seen by other people.B2~2%

“Hang on a minute while I get decent.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.