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sixteenth

[siks-teenth]
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adjective
  1. next after the fifteenth; being the ordinal number for 16.
  2. being one of 16 equal parts.
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noun
  1. a sixteenth part, especially of one (1/16).
  2. the sixteenth member of a series.
  3. Music. sixteenth note.
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Origin of sixteenth

before 900; Middle English sixtenthe (see sixteen, -th2); replacing Middle English sixtenthe, sixtethe, Old English sixtēotha (see tithe)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sixteenth

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Next day was Sunday, as glorious a sixteenth of September as could be desired.

    The Roof of France

    Matilda Betham-Edwards

  • What was it that wrought this peaceful wonder of the sixteenth century?

    Welsh Fairy Tales

    William Elliott Griffis

  • In the sixteenth century the progress of the art was in the same direction.

    English Villages

    P. H. Ditchfield

  • What did it cost one traveler to get to America in the sixteenth century?

    Introductory American History

    Henry Eldridge Bourne

  • The date of its erection was about the middle of the sixteenth century.

    Vivian Grey

    Earl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli

British Dictionary definitions for sixteenth

sixteenth

adjective
  1. (usually prenominal)
    1. coming after the fifteenth in numbering or counting order, position, time, etc; being the ordinal number of sixteen: often written 16th
    2. (as noun)the sixteenth of the month
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noun
    1. one of 16 equal or nearly equal parts of something
    2. (as modifier)a sixteenth part
  2. the fraction that is equal to one divided by 16 (1/16)
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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 sixteenth

adj.

early 13c., from sixteen + -th (1); replacing sixtethe, sixteothe, forms based on Old English syxteoða. Cf Old Frisian sextinda, Middle Dutch sestiende, German sechzehnte, Old Norse sextandi. Musical sixteenth note is from 1861.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper