fifty
Americannoun
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a cardinal number, ten times five.
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a symbol for this number, as 50 or L.
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a set of this many persons or things.
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fifties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 50 through 59, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or degrees of temperature.
She lives in the East Fifties. He's in his late fifties. It's going to be in the fifties again today.
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Informal. a fifty-dollar bill.
He had a fifty and two tens in his wallet.
adjective
noun
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the cardinal number that is the product of ten and five
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a numeral, 50, L, etc, representing this number
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something represented by, representing, or consisting of 50 units
determiner
Etymology
Origin of fifty
before 900; Middle English; Old English fīftig. See five, -ty 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.
One West Point cadet expressed this viewpoint in his jubilee speech, asking the audience: “What fifty years have ever witnessed greater improvements in science, literature, and politics?”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
Two hundred fifty years ago, the “truths” Thomas Jefferson laid out in the Declaration of Independence were not yet “self-evident,” as Elaine Pagels pointed out in a recent essay.
From Salon • Apr. 8, 2026
Buttler, who had gone 18 innings without a fifty including his difficult run at the T20 World Cup, looked closer to his best form in hitting 52 from 27 balls in Gujarat's 210-4.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
She and co-author Daan Struyven point out that during any twelve-month period in the last fifty years or so when stocks and bonds delivered negative real returns, then gold and commodities delivered positive real returns.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 2, 2026
We had gone forty or fifty miles on a calm, even day with no bad wind.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
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.
