fifteen

[fif-teen]

noun

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.

adjective

1. amounting to 15 in number.

fifteen

¹

/ 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

determiner

1. 1. amounting to fifteen

      fifteen jokes

   2. ( as pronoun )

      fifteen of us danced

Fifteen

²

/ ˈfɪfˈtiːn /

noun

1. history the Jacobite rising of 1715

Word History and Origins

Origin of fifteen¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of fifteen¹

Old English fīftēne

Example Sentences

Exhibit A, fifteen minutes in: “Look at that! That one is smelling for her son. Cows have great senses of smell, so great that they can even locate one another from over six miles away!”

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She had nodded off in her chair; it was now fifteen minutes past eleven o’clock.

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Penelope was only fifteen, yet even she could see such behavior was ridiculous, and Lady Constance was a married woman of nearly twenty!

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It was fifteen minutes after seven; his mother’s presence still hung in the air.

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There were about fifteen children in every grade.

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When To Use

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.