Questions About Hell Week (America Falls #1)

by Scott Medbury (Goodreads Author)

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Decimated means 1 in every ten dies. The description reads, "99.91% of the population over the age of 16 decimated". So I guess that means 1 tenth of 99.91% dies?

Asterope Most people use it as a figure of speech, not the literal meaning. They mean it kills a lot of people/things. See the definitions here:

dec·i·mate
/ˈde…moreMost people use it as a figure of speech, not the literal meaning. They mean it kills a lot of people/things. See the definitions here:

dec·i·mate
/ˈdesəˌmāt/
verb
past tense: decimated; past participle: decimated
1.
kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of.
"the project would decimate the fragile wetland wilderness"
2.
HISTORICAL
kill one in every ten of (a group of soldiers or others) as a punishment for the whole group.
"the man who is to determine whether it be necessary to decimate a large body of mutineers"

People even use it in contexts like "I totally decimated those cookies" when they mean they ate a ton of the whole package. (less)

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