teen

¹ American  

[teen] / tin /

adjective

1. teenage.

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noun

1. a teenager.

teen ² American  

[teen] / tin /

noun

1. Archaic. suffering; grief.

2. Obsolete. injury; harm.

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-teen ³ American  

1. a suffix used to form cardinal numerals from 13 to 19.

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-teen ¹ British  

combining form

1. ten: added to modified forms of the numbers 3 to 9 to form the numbers 13 to 19

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teen ² British  

/ tiːn /

adjective

1. informal another word for teenage

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teen ³ British  

/ tiːn /

noun

1. obsolete affliction or woe

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Usage

What does -teen mean? The suffix -teen means “ten.” It is used to form cardinal numbers from 13 to 19.The form -teen comes from Old English -tēne, meaning “ten.” The Latin cognate of -tēne is -decim, from decem, also meaning “ten.” Find out how dozen is related to the combining form -decim at our entry for the word.

Other Word Forms

• -teenth combining form

Etymology

Origin of teen¹

First recorded in 1940–45; by shortening

Origin of teen²

before 1000; Middle English tene, Old English tēona; cognate with Old Frisian tiona, Old Saxon tiono, Old Norse tjōn

Origin of -teen³

Middle English, Old English -tēne, combining form of ten; cognate with Dutch -tien, German -zehn

Example Sentences

Even teens are voicing a desire to reduce screen time.

From The Wall Street Journal

We see Hooper and Joyce get engaged and the older crew of teens talk about their lives in university and in their careers.

From BBC

Casanova went hiking on 29 December with a friend who was able to call for help after the teen fell.

From BBC

The teen made up for his disappointment by putting the Indomitable Lions ahead on 55 minutes with a fierce shot from outside the box that flew into the net off the underside of the crossbar.

From Barron's

Counterintuitively, the shift is driven partly by teens who end up going to college.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• juvenile
• youngster