six

[siks]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR six ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a cardinal number, five plus one.

a symbol for this number, as 6 or VI.

a set of this many persons or things.

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

Cricket. a hit in which the ball crosses the boundary line of the field without a bounce, counting six runs for the batsman.Compare boundary(def 3).

an automobile powered by a six-cylinder engine.

a six-cylinder engine.

adjective

amounting to six in number.

Idioms

at sixes and sevens,

in disorder or confusion.
in disagreement or dispute.

Origin of six

before 900; Middle English six, sex, Old English siex, syx, seox, sex; cognate with Dutch zes, Low German ses, German sechs, Old Norse sex, Gothic saihs, Latin sex, Greek héx, Sanskrit ṣaṣ

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for six

semester, hexad, sextet, hexagram, hexagon, sextuplet, hexagonal, semestral, senary, sextuple

Examples from the Web for six

Contemporary Examples of six

It was a very faithful homage to a Six Million Dollar Man episode.
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISIS
Marlow Stern
January 8, 2015
I just recently rewatched all six Star Wars movies the other day… Oh wow, from the beginning?
Patton Oswalt on Fighting Conservatives With Satire
William O’Connor
January 6, 2015
But the program is just six weeks long, the Pentagon admitted Monday.
Pentagon Insider on New Plan to Fight ISIS: ‘Of Course It’s Not Enough’
Nancy A. Youssef
January 6, 2015
Andrew and Fergie separated in 1992 after six years of marriage and formally divorced in 1996.
Fergie Dives Into Prince Andrew’s Sex Scandal
Tom Sykes
January 5, 2015
Several of them disputed the figure of six million Jewish deaths in the Holocaust.
The Louisiana Racists Who Courted Steve Scalise
Jason Berry
January 3, 2015

Historical Examples of six

In ten minutes the fund had reached over six hundred dollars.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
He's stolen five or six hundred dollars in gold from old Paul Nichols.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
"Six hundred and thirty-five dollars," answered Robert, producing it.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
And six weeks after that I had things in shape so't I was able to leave.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
De Lord had been with them in six troubles, and he would not desert them in de seventh.
Harriet, The Moses of Her People
Sarah H. Bradford

British Dictionary definitions for six

six

noun

the cardinal number that is the sum of five and oneSee also number (def. 1)

a numeral, 6, VI, etc, representing this number

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

Also called: six o'clock six hours after noon or midnight

Also called: sixer cricket

a stroke in which the ball crosses the boundary without bouncing
the six runs scored for such a stroke

a division of a Brownie Guide or Cub Scout pack

at sixes and sevens

in disagreement
in a state of confusion

knock someone for six informal to upset or overwhelm someone completely; stun

six of one and half a dozen of the other or six and two threes a situation in which the alternatives are considered equivalent

determiner

amounting to sixsix nations
(as pronoun)set the table for six

Related formsRelated prefixes: hexa-, sex-

Word Origin for six

Old English siex; related to Old Norse sex, Gothic saihs, Old High German sehs, Latin sex, Greek hex, Sanskrit sastha

Six

noun

Les Six (le) a group of six young composers in France, who from about 1916 formed a temporary association as a result of interest in neoclassicism and in the music of Satie and the poetry of Cocteau. Its members were Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, and Germaine Tailleferre

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for six

Old English siex, six, sex, from Proto-Germanic *sekhs (cf. Old Saxon and Danish seks, Old Norse, Swedish, and Old Frisian sex, Middle Dutch sesse, Dutch zes, Old High German sehs, German sechs, Gothic saihs), from PIE *s(w)eks (cf. Sanskrit sas, Avestan kshvash, Persian shash, Greek hex, Latin sex, Old Church Slavonic sesti, Polish szesc, Russian shesti, Lithuanian szeszi, Old Irish se, Welsh chwech).

Six-shooter, usually a revolver with six chambers, is first attested 1844; six-pack of beverage containers is from 1952, of abdominal muscles by 1995. Six of one and half-a-dozen of the other "little difference" is recorded from 1833. Six-figure in reference to hundreds of thousands (of dollars, etc.) is from 1840. Six feet under "dead" is from 1942.

Phrase at sixes and sevens originally was "hazarding all one's chances," first in Chaucer, perhaps from dicing (the original form was on six and seven); it could be a corruption of on cinque and sice, using the French names (which were common in Middle English) for the highest numbers on the dice. Meaning "at odds, in disagreement or confusion" is from 1785, perhaps via a notion of "left unsettled."

Idioms and Phrases with six

six

In addition to the idioms beginning with six

six feet under
six of one, half a dozen of the other

also see:

at sixes and sevens
deep six
Joe six-pack