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• fifteen
  fifteen

  noun

  a cardinal number, ten plus five.
• Fifteen
  Fifteen

  noun

  history the Jacobite rising of 1715

fifteen

American  

[fif-teen] / ˈfɪfˈtin /

noun

• fifteens
  plural

1. a cardinal number, ten plus five.

2. a symbol for this number, as 15 or XV.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

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adjective

1. amounting to 15 in number.

fifteen ¹ British  

/ ˈfɪfˈtiːn /

noun

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

2. a numeral, 15, XV, etc, representing this number

3. something represented by, representing, or consisting of 15 units

4. a rugby union football team

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to fifteen

      fifteen jokes

   2. ( as pronoun )

      fifteen of us danced

Fifteen ² British  

/ ˈfɪfˈtiːn /

noun

1. history the Jacobite rising of 1715

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Usage

Spelling tips for fifteen The word fifteen is hard to spell because it doesn’t simply combine the spelling of the base number, five, with the suffix -teen, as is done in other easy-to-remember spellings like fourteen and sixteen.  How to spell fifteen: When five is combined with suffixes, the ve is turned into an f: fifteen (not fiveteen), fifty (not fivety), and fifth (not fiveth). Remember: there’s no v in fifteen.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fifteens
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fifteen

before 900; Middle English, Old English fiftene. See five, -teen

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fifteen Fifteen fifteens

Across the globe, bond yields are setting new highs with 10-year benchmarks at their steepest for thirty years in Japan, fifteen years for Germany and 18 years in the U.K.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

“Our Q2 results represent our strongest revenue growth in more than fifteen years,” said Intel’s Chief Executive, Lip-Bu Tan, in a statement.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

“How to save the world in fifteen easy steps,” read one headline the day it was published.

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026

According to Kpler figures, at least 16.7 million barrels of crude oil were stored on board at least fifteen large tankers, used as temporary reservoirs near the Venezuelan coast, at the beginning of the week.

From Barron's ● Jan. 8, 2026

“See? I’m okay with you going out as long as you send me a text every fifteen minutes or so.”

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

Fifteen consecutive seasons of .500 or better ball, y’all!

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

Fifteen out of 18 industries reported price increases.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

Fifteen years after Marc Andreessen famously declared that “software is eating the world,” his venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is making a big bet on hardware.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Fifteen years and five films later, neither “Insidious” nor the Further are as fresh as they used to be.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Fifteen minutes later, my phone finally buzzes as I’m sitting down for lunch in the food court.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

As she switched into fifteens from sevens, her lack of power and confidence in contact was exposed.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026

In 2022, for the first time, there will be a professional domestic tournament for women’s fifteens rugby.

From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2022

When he threw parties for his three daughters—sweet fifteens, then engagements—social columnists came to write about the movers and shakers in attendance.

From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2016

The rise of sevens can have a knock-on effect, particularly in China where funding for fifteens has suffered.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 22, 2013

Lina was a couple of years older than Elsa, Lourdes, Sinita, and me; but her last year at Inmaculada, we were all in the same dormitory hall of the fifteens through seventeens.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez