sixteenth

[siks-teenth]

adjective

next after the fifteenth; being the ordinal number for 16.

being one of 16 equal parts.

noun

a sixteenth part, especially of one (1/16).

the sixteenth member of a series.

Music. sixteenth note.

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for sixteenth

Contemporary Examples of sixteenth

Protecting its most valued informant may well explain why it took decades to bring the Sixteenth Street Church bombers to justice.
40 years for Justice: Did the FBI Cover for the Birmingham Bombers?
Gary May
September 15, 2013
Was Rowe involved in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church?
40 years for Justice: Did the FBI Cover for the Birmingham Bombers?
Gary May
September 15, 2013

Historical Examples of sixteenth

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

(usually prenominal)

coming after the fifteenth in numbering or counting order, position, time, etc; being the ordinal number of sixteen: often written 16th
(as noun)the sixteenth of the month

noun

one of 16 equal or nearly equal parts of something
(as modifier)a sixteenth part

the fraction that is equal to one divided by 16 (1/16)

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.