fifteen
[fif-teen]
- a cardinal number, ten plus five.
- a symbol for this number, as 15 or XV.
- a set of this many persons or things.
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- amounting to 15 in number.
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Origin of fifteen
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for fifteen
Contemporary Examples
Bob Cratchit, the clerk who is the father of Tiny Tim and who meekly serves Scrooge, is paid fifteen shillings a week.
Fifteen people were killed, more than 200 were injured, and more than 300 families lost their homes.
It took me fifteen minutes to fill a thick black Hefty bag with papers and computer parts.
Fifteen years later, the same communities had returned for the annual celebration, as most had year after year.
Fifteen years after its last execution, Pennsylvania is finding it difficult to fire up its death machine again.
Historical Examples
We did not get on it till we had travelled along the line about fifteen miles.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
There are only Evelyn and I, and I am fifteen years older than she.
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton CampusJessie Graham Flower
For fifteen years he poured his heart without stint into his work!
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
Seventy-four of the professors voted for Mr. Gladstone and fifteen for Mr. Perceval.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
Then I come on a slab of gray stone upstanding about fifteen feet.
Ballads of a BohemianRobert W. Service
fifteen
- the cardinal number that is the sum of ten and five
- a numeral, 15, XV, etc, representing this number
- something represented by, representing, or consisting of 15 units
- a rugby union football team
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- amounting to fifteenfifteen jokes
- (as pronoun)fifteen of us danced
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Word Origin
Old English fīftēne
Fifteen
- the Fifteen British history the Jacobite rising of 1715
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for fifteen
n.
Old English fiftyne, from fif "five" (see five) + tyne (see -teen). Cf. Old Saxon fiftein, Old Frisian fiftine, Old Norse fimtan, Swedish femton, Dutch vijftien, German fünfzehn, Gothic fimftaihun "fifteen." French quinze, Italian quindici "fifteen" are from Latin quindecim (see Quatorze).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper