sixty

American  

[siks-tee] / ˈsɪks ti /

noun

• sixties
  plural

1. a cardinal number, ten times six.

2. a symbol for this number, as 60 or LX.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. sixties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 60 through 69, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or noting degrees of temperature.

   Her grandfather is in his late sixties. The temperature is in the low sixties.

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adjective

1. amounting to 60 in number.

idioms

1. like sixty, with great speed, ease, energy, or zest.

   Everyone was working like sixty to finish up before the holidays.

sixty British  

/ ˈsɪkstɪ /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the product of ten and six See also number

2. a numeral, 60, LX, etc, representing sixty

3. something represented by, representing, or consisting of 60 units

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to sixty

      sixty soldiers

   2. ( as pronoun )

      sixty are dead

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sixties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sixty

before 900; Middle English (adj. and noun), Old English sixtig (adj.); cognate with Dutch zestig, German sechzig, Old Norse sextigir. See six, -ty ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sixty sixties

You’re off to work in sixty seconds flat.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026

In just over two months, the number of suspected cases of measles have reached over sixty thousand in Bangladesh, according to the health ministry.

From BBC ● May 27, 2026

The move, effective in sixty days, would bar the centers from billing Medicaid.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026

Dr. Ilko's conclusions are based on ten years of research that took her to more than twenty archives and over sixty Augustinian sites, including remote and difficult to access ruins.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026

Each man or family can claim one hundred and sixty acres.

From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

"Conserving electricity means preserving the nation's resources. We must not strain the electrical grid with unnecessary usage," said Abdulrahman Al-Azmi, a Kuwaiti man in his sixties.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

In his early sixties, Rob Kaufman suffered a medical emergency that caused him to faint and hit his head on a wood floor, resulting in a traumatic brain injury.

From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026

John: “We’ve had the swinging sixties, and I was wondering, Mrs. Lennon, how you saw your place in the seventies?”

From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2025

There were plenty of British title winners in the sixties in what was a very British sport, but the softly spoken Surtees stood out as an international talent.

From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2025

Rav Gershenson was a tall, heavy-shouldered man in his late sixties, with a long, pointed gray beard and thin, tapered fingers that seemed always to be dancing in the air.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok