Definition of "decurion" [de•cu•ri•on]

• An officer in command of ten men in the army of ancient Rome. (noun)
• A member of a municipal senate in ancient Rome who ran local government. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Your work officers of your labor legion will select their representative, called a decurion, from among your ranks."
• "The Jesuits organized each class in subdivisions; each division being headed by an advanced pupil called a decurion, to whom the boys recited their lessons at stated times, while the teacher corrected exercises or heard the lessons of particular pupils."
• "All this tends at least to prove that we should read "decurion" for"