teen

¹

[teen]

adjective

1. teenage.

noun

1. a teenager.

teen

²

[teen]

noun

1. Archaic.,  suffering; grief.

2. Obsolete.,  injury; harm.

-teen

³

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

-teen

¹

combining form

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

teen

²

/ tiːn /

adjective

1. informal,  another word for teenage

teen

³

/ tiːn /

noun

1. obsolete,  affliction or woe

Other Word Forms

• -teenth combining form

Word History and Origins

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of teen¹

Old English -tēne, -tӯne

Origin of teen²

Old English tēona; related to Old Saxon tiono, Old Frisian tiona injury

Example Sentences

Take the Minnesota teen who said a Buffalo Wild Wings server followed her into a women’s restroom and demanded she “prove” she was a girl.

From Salon

Another option prevents teen data from being used to train OpenAI’s models.

From Los Angeles Times

All are from immigrant families, the Latino teens seen as intruders and outsiders.

From Los Angeles Times

She's been writing since she was 13 - and part of the reason for her new musical pseudonym is that she "never wants anyone to find" the EPs she recorded in her teens.

From BBC

The chain had been particularly popular for its ear piercing services and was a common stop in the early 2000s for tweens and teens during weekend shopping trips across the world.

From BBC

Related Words

• juvenile 
• youngster 

When To Use

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.