fifteen
FIHF-teen
Fifteen (num) means the number after fourteen and before sixteen; 15. Example: “There are fifteen students in our evening class this term.”
num
1
The number after fourteen and before sixteen; 15.
"There are fifteen students in our evening class this term."
"The bus leaves in fifteen minutes, so we should hurry."
"The fifteen men are, of course, the fifteen allies and the dead man's chest is the strategic principle on which their alliance is founded and which is now moribund."
— C.I. Sulzberger, Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest (1960)
"She turns fifteen next week."
"She was, in fact, constitutionally impervious to statistics and preferred to study the be-headphoned group of fifteen or so lethargic wanderers who were taking even less notice of the remorseless squawkings than she was."
— Christopher Hodder-Williams, Hands (1968)
How to use fifteen
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe number 15.
Common pairings
fifteen minutes
fifteen years old
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Word forms
- Plural
- fifteens
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There are _____ students in our evening class this term.
Etymology
From Old English fiftiene, built from "five" plus "-teen" (meaning "ten").
Rhymes for fifteen
See all rhymes for fifteen →Frequently asked questions
What does “fifteen” mean?
The word “fifteen” means the number after fourteen and before sixteen; 15. In plain terms, the number 15.
How do you pronounce “fifteen”?
“Fifteen” is pronounced FIHF-teen (/ˈfɪf.tiːn/ in IPA).
How do you use “fifteen” in a sentence?
Here is “fifteen” used in a sentence: “She turns fifteen next week.”
What part of speech is “fifteen”?
“Fifteen” is a num.
Where does the word “fifteen” come from?
The word “fifteen” comes from Old English. From Old English fiftiene, built from "five" plus "-teen" (meaning "ten").
Is “fifteen” a common word?
“Fifteen” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.
Should you write fifteen as a word or as the numeral 15?
It depends on the style guide. Many news and business styles spell out numbers one to nine and use figures such as 15 from ten upward, while more formal or literary writing often spells out fifteen. Being consistent within a document matters more than the choice itself.
What is the difference between fifteen and fifteenth?
Fifteen is the cardinal number that counts a quantity, written 15. Fifteenth is the ordinal form, written 15th, which shows position in a sequence, as in 'the fifteenth of May.'
How do you spell fifteen correctly?
The correct spelling is fifteen, with the letters f-i-f-t-e-e-n. A common mistake is writing 'fiveteen,' but the 've' of five is dropped to form fifteen.
Is fifteen hyphenated in larger numbers?
Fifteen itself is written as one word with no hyphen. Hyphens appear only in compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine, such as forty-five, so numbers built with fifteen as a base do not arise.
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