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Synonyms

teen

1 American  
[teen] / tin /

adjective

  1. teenage.

noun

  1. a teenager.

teen 2 American  
[teen] / tin /

noun

  1. Archaic. suffering; grief.

  2. Obsolete. injury; harm.

-teen 3 American  

  1. a suffix used to form cardinal numerals from 13 to 19.

-teen 1 British  

combining form

  1. ten: added to modified forms of the numbers 3 to 9 to form the numbers 13 to 19

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
teen 2 British  
/ tiːn /

adjective

  1. informal another word for teenage

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
teen 3 British  
/ tiːn /

noun

  1. obsolete affliction or woe

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

What does -teen mean? The suffix -teen means “ten.” It is used to form cardinal numbers from 13 to 19.The form -teen comes from Old English -tēne, meaning “ten.” The Latin cognate of -tēne is -decim, from decem, also meaning “ten.” Find out how dozen is related to the combining form -decim at our entry for the word.

Other Word Forms

  • -teenth combining form

Etymology

Origin of teen1

First recorded in 1940–45; by shortening

Origin of teen2

before 1000; Middle English tene, Old English tēona; cognate with Old Frisian tiona, Old Saxon tiono, Old Norse tjōn

Origin of -teen3

Middle English, Old English -tēne, combining form of ten; cognate with Dutch -tien, German -zehn

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A Meta spokesperson told the BBC that reducing something as complex as teen mental health to a single cause risks leaving the many, broader issues teens face today unaddressed.

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026

But she hasn’t conceived the teen as anything more than a blunt symbol of pubescent awkwardness.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026

Meta said teen mental health cannot be linked to a single app, while Google said the case mischaracterized YouTube as a social-media site rather than a streaming platform.

From Barron's • Mar. 26, 2026

Hundreds of millions of teens have teen accounts, which were introduced in 2024, Meta said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026

“We’ll be featuring some local teen poets who were part of the Poetry Out Loud summer workshops. So give ’em a round of applause, y’all.”

From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.