five

[ fahyv ]

noun

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?

adjective

1. amounting to five in number.

five

/ 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

determiner

1. 1. amounting to five

      five nights

      five minutes

   2. ( as pronoun ) penta-quinque-

      choose any five you like

Word History and Origins

Origin of five¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of five¹

Old English fīf ; related to Old Norse fimm , Gothic fimf , Old High German finf , Latin quinque , Greek pente , Sanskrit pañca

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. take five, Informal. to take a brief respite.

More idioms and phrases containing five

see take five .

Example Sentences

“It was Stephen Hawking and five other Nobel laureates,” Krauss recalled.

From The Daily Beast

The Big Five banks dubbed too big to fail, are 35 percent bigger than they were when the meltdown was triggered.

From The Daily Beast

The judges who handle arraignments at criminal court in all five boroughs have a small fraction of their usual caseloads.

From The Daily Beast

After four or five months of casual interaction, they realized they both had lost a young parent to cancer.

From The Daily Beast

“The play contains one five minute scene about James Hewitt,” Conway says.

From The Daily Beast

I presume the twenty-five or thirty miles at this end is unhealthy, even for natives, but it surely need not be so.

From Project Gutenberg

Five of the number had studied with Liszt before, and the young men are artists already before the public.

From Project Gutenberg

Before daybreak we had ridden five and twenty miles, but had been compelled to abandon two more guns.

From Project Gutenberg

These Rules (leaving out the Tenor) serves for five bells; and leaving out the fifth and Tenor, they serve for four bells.

From Project Gutenberg

At length only four or five flames remained, feebly wavering in their pools of melted wax.

From Project Gutenberg