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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

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Etymology

Origin of fifteen

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

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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

It bears heavy signs of use and was made by Fuhrer Frères of Gstaad, the same Swiss firm that supplied fifteen axes to the 1924 Everest expedition.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

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

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026

“Summerset has delivered a 19% compound annual growth rate in net tangible assets per share over the last fifteen years and is still growing its unit base 10% per year,” analyst Will Twiss says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026

For one thing, I’d been fifteen since winter and still hadn’t passed the eighth-grade graduation exam.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

Fifteen minutes before: Put out the remaining garnishes, dressed salads and dessert.

From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026

Fifteen years ago, Williams worked with the University Hospital of Wales to improve neonatal resuscitation.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

Fifteen critically endangered frogs have hatched at London Zoo, which says it marks the first time the species has been bred in captivity.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

Fifteen years ago, developers started clearing forests to build more warehouses, Majusiak recalled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

Fifteen on Thanksgiving Day, ten on the Saturday after, and then up to twelve on Sunday—“a regular heat wave,” said my father.

From "Orbiting Jupiter" by Gary D. Schmidt

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

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