five

American  

[fahyv] / faɪv /

noun

• fives
  plural

1. a cardinal number, four plus one.

2. a symbol for this number, as 5 or V.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. a playing card, die face, or half of a domino face with five pips.

5. Informal. a five-dollar bill.

   Can you give me two fives for a ten?

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adjective

1. amounting to five in number.

idioms

1. take five, to take a brief respite.

five British  

/ faɪv /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the sum of four and one

2. a numeral, 5, V, etc, representing this number

3. the amount or quantity that is one greater than four

4. something representing, represented by, or consisting of five units, such as a playing card with five symbols on it

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to five

      five minutes

      five nights

   2. ( as pronoun )

      choose any five you like

five More Idioms  

1. see take five.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fives
  plural

Etymology

Origin of five

before 1000; 1925–30 five for def. 7; Middle English; Old English fīf; cognate with Dutch vijf, German fünf, Old Norse fimm, Gothic fimf, Latin quīnque, Greek pénte, Sanskrit pancha

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

five fives

He mowed down the Dodgers with 11 strikeouts, limiting them to just five hits in nine innings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

Vast periods of this play-off went by without Rangers stringing more than four and five passes together.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Lake Ontario is the smallest by surface area of the five Great Lakes, which straddle the border between the United States and Canada.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

We typically buy our straddles four or five months out in time, to allow ample time for the stock to move.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

“By five o’clock. Guests are supposed to start arriving by five o’clock, so I am, kind of, in a hurry.”

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Brokers have the option to buy an additional 83.3 million shares as part of a standard overallotment option to help balance supply and demand, messing up the nine fives.

From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026

Afterward, Jordan jumped the track’s safety barrier to greet Reddick and his team with some hard high fives and enthusiastic cheers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2026

Manny Farber said that when he was about 4 years old, his father demonstrated to him how a computer worked by writing a computer program on the fly that could count to 100 by fives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026

Children and young people have been particularly affected with under fives being admitted to hospital with flu at higher rates than any other age group during that period.

From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025

It was a carnival atmosphere, with lots of pointing and laughing and high fives.

From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman