décadent

decadent

adjective deh-kah-DAHN Rare

Usage Note

Décadent describes a person, society, or cultural period characterised by moral decline, excessive luxury, or overrefinement. The feminine form is décadente. In literary history, les Décadents refers to a late 19th-century French literary movement associated with Verlaine and Huysmans, prizing artifice and sensory excess over Romantic idealism.

Examples

"Cette société décadente a fini par s'effondrer."

Natural Translation

That decadent society eventually collapsed.

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