eleven

American  

[ih-lev-uhn] / ɪˈlɛv ən /

noun

elevens plural

1. a cardinal number, ten plus one.

2. a symbol for this number, such as 11 or XI.

3. a set or group of 11 people or things, such as a football or soccer team.

   The new forward plays a pivotal role in the Manchester eleven.

4. Also called eleven lines.  Informal. none elevens or 11s. a pair of vertical wrinkles that commonly develop between the eyebrows; frown lines.

   My dermatologist said he could fix my elevens with no injections or plastic surgery.

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adjective

1. amounting to one more than ten in number.

eleven British  

/ ɪˈlɛvən /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the sum of ten and one

2. a numeral 11, XI, etc, representing this number

3. something representing, represented by, or consisting of 11 units

4. (functioning as singular or plural) a team of 11 players in football, cricket, hockey, etc

5. Also called: eleven o'clock.  eleven hours after noon or midnight

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to eleven

      eleven chances

   2. ( as pronoun )

      have another eleven today

Usage

Spelling tips for 11 The word eleven (11) is hard to spell because the word sounds as if it should include the letter i [ ih-lev-uhn ]. How to spell eleven: The easiest way to remember how to spell eleven is that every other letter is an e. There are no other vowels. You simply take all of the consonant sounds (l, v, and n), and add an e between all of them: eLeVeN.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• elevens
  plural

Etymology

Origin of eleven

First recorded before 900; Middle English elleven(e), Old English ellefne, endleofan; cognate with Old High German einlif ( German elf ), Old Norse ellifu, Gothic ainlib-, literally, one remaining (after counting ten). See one, leave ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

eleven elevens

And despite reaching the final eleven times in the years to follow, they failed to win it.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

A year later, California entered the union as a free state, resetting the national debate on free versus slave states, eleven years before the Civil War.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

The stock gained in ten of the last eleven weeks and is up 14% this week and 17% over the last month.

From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026

“For the public, in my eleven years that I’ve been county judge, this is perhaps my third time that I’ve ever re-ranked the proposals,” Tijerina said.

From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026

On November 11 at eleven a.m.—the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month—the guns fell silent on the Western Front.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman

Six seeds are 86-50 against the elevens, fives are 89-47 against twelves, and once you get to fours vs. thirteens, you're in never gonna happen territory.

From Golf Digest ● Mar. 18, 2019

Your teacher chants, “Eleven elevens, a hundred twenty-one.”

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2012

On Saturday, a football match took place at the Oval, Kennington, between picked elevens of England and Scotland.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 6, 2012

The date on Friday will be Nov. 11, 2011, and the triple play of elevens — being rendered as 11/11/11, 11-11-11 and 11.11.11 — is inspiring a commercialized celebration on Madison Avenue.

From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2011

The way it works with dice, if you shave just a bit off one side, you supposed to be able to roll more sevens and elevens.

From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson