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Re: halfdecade



Jim Green wrote:
If decade is a group or grouping of ten, what is a group of five?

It's a pentad. Things which tend to occur in groups of five are
pentadic.

The nouns of grouping are irregular in usage. The most common seem to
be decade, nonad, octet, septet, sextet, pentad, tetrad, triad and
pair. Diad is archaic. Monad is in the dictionary, but I don't believe
I have ever heard it used outside a crossword puzzle. A group of three
is often called a triplet, as is one member of a group of three; go
figure.

Best wishes,

Larry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Larry Cartwright <exit60@cablespeed.com>
Retired (June 2001) Physics Teacher
Charlotte MI 48813 USA
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