seventeen
Americannoun
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seventeens
plural
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a cardinal number, 10 plus 7.
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a symbol for this number, as 17 or XVII.
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a set of this many persons or things.
adjective
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amounting to 17 in number.
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(initial capital letter, italics) a novel (1916) by Booth Tarkington.
noun
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the cardinal number that is the sum of ten and seven and is a prime number See also number
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a numeral, 17, XVII, etc, representing this number
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the amount or quantity that is seven more than ten
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something represented by, representing, or consisting of 17 units
determiner
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of seventeen
before 900; Middle English seventene, Old English seofontēne (cognate with Dutch zeventien, German siebzehn ). See seven, -teen
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.
See Examples For:
Attorneys general in seventeen states are suing California over its landmark single-use plastic law, which went into effect on June 1.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
When the young black poet Amanda Gorman became an international success after reading her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s inauguration, seventeen publishers quickly bought the rights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2025
"There's seventeen different species of tree across the road," he said.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2025
As of April 2024, seventeen states and the District of Columbia have adopted the compact, jurisdictions that comprise 209 electoral votes.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2024
She tells me about meeting August—she was seventeen, and it had just dawned on her that the recent spate of bachelors joining her family for dinner were actually being presented as potential husbands.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Lina was a couple of years older than Elsa, Lourdes, Sinita, and me; but her last year at Inmaculada, we were all in the same dormitory hall of the fifteens through seventeens.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
We all looked up to her as if she were a lot older than even the other seventeens.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Why do they go by fives, nines, and seventeens?
From Works of John Bunyan — Volume 03 by John Bunyan
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