eighteen
Americannoun
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eighteens
plural
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a cardinal number, ten plus eight.
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a symbol for this number, as 18 or XVIII.
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a set of this many persons or things.
adjective
noun
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the cardinal number that is the sum of ten and eight and the product of two and nine See also number
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a numeral, 18, XVIII, etc, representing this number
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the amount or quantity that is eight more than ten
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something represented by, representing, or consisting of 18 units
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(functioning as singular or plural) a team of 18 players in Australian Rules football
determiner
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of eighteen
before 1000; Middle English ehtetene, Old English eahtatēne; cognate with Old Norse āttjān, German achtzehn. See eight, -teen
Vocabulary lists containing eighteen
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Toeing the government line, Ratcliffe reiterated that tracking emerging technologies has been his highest priority, "right up there with China," since he took office eighteen months ago.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
On her podcast, he said he once told his brother Harry: “When I am eighteen, I will never talk to you ever again.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
We counted eighteen French gendarmes watching them from the shore, declining to intervene.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2025
He travelled eighteen miles but only after ejecting every loose object from the balloon to enable it to launch.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2024
“Wash yourself in the sea! We must make a powerful impression on the dragon. Dragons notice appearances, and you children look eighteen varieties of disgusting.”
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
“Ooh wee! Yo, Benny, we got steel and eighteens on this one!” he shouted like he was talking about a car.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
They had long eighteens upon their forecastles, and their broadside guns were composed of twelves and sixes.
From The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation Volume 1 by Charles Roger
Accordingly General Taylor ordered the supply train to be parked at its position and left under the guard of two twelve-pounders and the fatal eighteens which had done such signal service on the 8th.
From History of the War Between Mexico and the United States, with a Preliminary View of its Origin, Volume 1 by Brantz Mayer
The whole number of cannon mounted on the fortress was thirty-one, of these, nine were French twenty-sixes; six English eighteens; nine twelve and seven nine pounders.*
From The Life of Francis Marion by William Gilmore Simms
Six long twenty-fours of the new make, here in front, and two eighteens upon either flank, and I should like to see the whole of the Boulogne flotilla try to take yonder shore by daylight.
From Springhaven : a Tale of the Great War by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
