eleven
Americannoun
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elevens
plural
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a cardinal number, ten plus one.
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a symbol for this number, such as 11 or XI.
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a set or group of 11 people or things, such as a football or soccer team.
The new forward plays a pivotal role in the Manchester eleven.
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Also called eleven lines. Informal. none elevens or 11s. a pair of vertical wrinkles that commonly develop between the eyebrows; frown lines.
My dermatologist said he could fix my elevens with no injections or plastic surgery.
adjective
noun
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the cardinal number that is the sum of ten and one
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a numeral 11, XI, etc, representing this number
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something representing, represented by, or consisting of 11 units
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(functioning as singular or plural) a team of 11 players in football, cricket, hockey, etc
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Also called: eleven o'clock. eleven hours after noon or midnight
determiner
Usage
Spelling tips for 11 The word eleven (11) is hard to spell because the word sounds as if it should include the letter i [ ih-lev-uhn ]. How to spell eleven: The easiest way to remember how to spell eleven is that every other letter is an e. There are no other vowels. You simply take all of the consonant sounds (l, v, and n), and add an e between all of them: eLeVeN.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of eleven
First recorded before 900; Middle English elleven(e), Old English ellefne, endleofan; cognate with Old High German einlif ( German elf ), Old Norse ellifu, Gothic ainlib-, literally, one remaining (after counting ten). See one, leave 1
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:
While the biodegradable plastics were completely broken down within approximately nine to eleven months, conventional high-density polyethylene showed almost no decomposition.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
“We would not be here if they had taken our concerns seriously for almost eleven months of bargaining.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
A year later, California entered the union as a free state, resetting the national debate on free versus slave states, eleven years before the Civil War.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
The stock gained in ten of the last eleven weeks and is up 14% this week and 17% over the last month.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
The journey, which brought them through enemy territory, took eleven days.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Six seeds are 86-50 against the elevens, fives are 89-47 against twelves, and once you get to fours vs. thirteens, you're in never gonna happen territory.
From Golf Digest ● Mar. 18, 2019
Your teacher chants, “Eleven elevens, a hundred twenty-one.”
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2012
On Saturday, a football match took place at the Oval, Kennington, between picked elevens of England and Scotland.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 6, 2012
The date on Friday will be Nov. 11, 2011, and the triple play of elevens — being rendered as 11/11/11, 11-11-11 and 11.11.11 — is inspiring a commercialized celebration on Madison Avenue.
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2011
Four of the tables were empty, but cabin elevens was way overcrowded.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
