decide

UK/dɪˈsaɪd/US/dɪˈsaɪd/

verbA1Very common — you will meet it every day · #748 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: decided, decides, deciding

To decide is to finally choose what you will do after thinking about it. Decide at last.

The finality is the whole of it, since weighing options is not yet deciding. To decide badly and quickly is often better than to decide well and too late.

Definitions of decide

1verbdecideTo finally choose what you will do after thinking about it.A1
“They had to decide before the office closed.”

decide is an action.

Where it comes from

From Latin dē, down from, and caedō, to cut. To decide is to cut the other choices away — which is why a real decision feels so final.

Proto-Indo-European
*kh₂eyd-
Latin
dēcīdere
Old French
decider
Middle English
deciden
English, today
decide

Built from

dēcīdō · Latin — cut off, decide
dē · Latin — down from
caedō · Latin — cut

From Middle English deciden, from Old French decider, from Latin dēcīdere, infinitive of dēcīdō (“cut off, decide”), from dē (“down from”) + caedō (“cut”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs

Practise this word

decide in the wild

The practical authority given to the court is known as its jurisdiction, which describes the court's power to decide certain kinds of questions, or petitions put to it.
Court
The OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act loop) is a decision-making model developed by United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd in the early 1970s.
OODA loop
Upon receipt, the Keeper has 45 days to decide whether to add the property to the NRHP.
Keeper of the Register
A trial de novo is usually ordered by an appellate court when the original trial failed to decide in a manner dictated by law.
Trial de novo
To determine a fact is to decide, from the evidence presented, whether something existed or some event occurred.
Trier of fact

1 / 5

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 caedō family

decide

decide — used about once every 67 pages · #748 · point at the bar for the others

← Vocabulary

decide

UK/dɪˈsaɪd/US/dɪˈsaɪd/

verbA1Very common — you will meet it every day · #748 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: decided, decides, deciding

To decide is to finally choose what you will do after thinking about it. Decide at last.

The finality is the whole of it, since weighing options is not yet deciding. To decide badly and quickly is often better than to decide well and too late.

Definitions of decide

1verbdecideTo finally choose what you will do after thinking about it.A1
“They had to decide before the office closed.”

decide is an action.

Where it comes from

From Latin dē, down from, and caedō, to cut. To decide is to cut the other choices away — which is why a real decision feels so final.

Proto-Indo-European
*kh₂eyd-
Latin
dēcīdere
Old French
decider
Middle English
deciden
English, today
decide

Built from

dēcīdō · Latin — cut off, decide
dē · Latin — down from
caedō · Latin — cut

From Middle English deciden, from Old French decider, from Latin dēcīdere, infinitive of dēcīdō (“cut off, decide”), from dē (“down from”) + caedō (“cut”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs

Practise this word

decide in the wild

The practical authority given to the court is known as its jurisdiction, which describes the court's power to decide certain kinds of questions, or petitions put to it.
Court
The OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act loop) is a decision-making model developed by United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd in the early 1970s.
OODA loop
Upon receipt, the Keeper has 45 days to decide whether to add the property to the NRHP.
Keeper of the Register
A trial de novo is usually ordered by an appellate court when the original trial failed to decide in a manner dictated by law.
Trial de novo
To determine a fact is to decide, from the evidence presented, whether something existed or some event occurred.
Trier of fact

1 / 5

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 caedō family

decide

decide — used about once every 67 pages · #748 · point at the bar for the others