Definition of decadence

< decadelong

decadency >

dec·a·dence    (dk-dns, d-kdns) KEY 

NOUN:

1. A process, condition, or period of deterioration or decline, as in morals or art; decay.
2. often Decadence A literary movement especially of late 19th-century France and England characterized by refined aestheticism, artifice, and the quest for new sensations.

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ETYMOLOGY:
French décadence, from Old French decadence, from Medieval Latin dcadentia, a decaying, declining, from Vulgar Latin *dcadere, to decay ; see decay