fifty
Americannoun
plural
fifties-
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.
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 has not scored a 50-over fifty since February 2023.
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
"Supply constraints today are less severe" than some fifty years ago and remain concentrated around the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global consumption of oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes.
From Barron's • Mar. 17, 2026
The mother said they had driven almost a hundred and fifty miles looking for a Sunoco station because they were the cleanest, but what good was clean if you couldn’t get in?
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
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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.