fifty

American  

[fif-tee] / ˈfɪf ti /

noun

fifties plural

1. a cardinal number, ten times five.

2. a symbol for this number, as 50 or L.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. fifties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 50 through 59, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or degrees of temperature.

   She lives in the East Fifties. He's in his late fifties. It's going to be in the fifties again today.

5. Informal. a fifty-dollar bill.

   He had a fifty and two tens in his wallet.

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adjective

1. amounting to 50 in number.

fifty British  

/ ˈfɪftɪ /

noun

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

2. a numeral, 50, L, etc, representing this number

3. something represented by, representing, or consisting of 50 units

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to fifty

      fifty people

   2. ( as pronoun )

      fifty should be sufficient

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fifties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fifty

before 900; Middle English; Old English fīftig. See five, -ty ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fifty fifties

Around fifty miners have already taken part, and all of them have received job offers.

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

Plenty in the Oval crowd were standing when Sciver-Brunt reached her fifty.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

The “divisive matter of race,” the authors write, “which the founding fathers had tried to sidestep, would emerge as the seminal issue during the next fifty years.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t complain, I like to be in my thoughts, but who would have thought that at fifty, suddenly, it’s just me, my dog and our silence?

From Salon ● May 9, 2026

It’s unknown how many of these papers were printed during this time, but there are at least fifty documented publications.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Khaled Al-Badri, a Kuwaiti man in his fifties, told AFP he started turning off the air conditioning before leaving his house and switching off the outdoor lights.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

"We stayed to guard our soil," her daughter Najat al-Nour, a Quran professor in her fifties who lifted her chin high to admonish those who left.

From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026

The 35-year-old has had a quiet winter with no fifties in 15 international innings across all formats, though a 97 not out in the SA20 in January casts doubt on those writing him off entirely.

From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026

Martyn was also a prolific one-day international batter, scoring 5,346 runs from 208 matches at an average of 40, with five hundreds and 37 fifties.

From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2026

He appeared to be in his early fifties and was well enough dressed.

From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin