seventeenth

[sev-uhn-teenth]

adjective

1. next after the sixteenth; being the ordinal number for 17.

2. being one of 17 equal parts.

noun

1. a seventeenth part, especially of one (1/17).

2. the seventeenth member of a series.

Word History and Origins

Origin of seventeenth¹

before 900; seventeen + -th ²; replacing Middle English seventethe, Old English seofontēotha. ( seven, tithe )

Example Sentences

In the seventeenth season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” the gang is back and more gourmet than ever.

From Salon

It’s the negative image of an important intellectual movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Enlightenment, whose principles formed, among other things, the basis for American democracy.

From Salon

In the seventeenth century, Thomas Hobbes pegged laughter as the companion of scorn.

From Salon

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these tunnels were used to store human remains from overcrowded cemeteries.

From Literature

When the United States declared war, it had a large and modern navy but a small, poorly equipped army, only the seventeenth largest in the world.

From Literature