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• ten
  ten

  noun

  a cardinal number, nine plus one.
• ten.
  ten.

  abbreviation

  tenor.
• ten-
  ten-

  combining form

  a variant of teno-

ten

¹ American  

[ten] / tɛn /

noun

1. a cardinal number, nine plus one.

2. a symbol for this number, as 10 or X.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. a playing card with ten pips.

5. Informal. a ten-dollar bill.

   She had two tens and a five in her purse.

6. Also called ten's place.  Mathematics.

   1. (in a mixed number) the position of the second digit to the left of the decimal point.

   2. (in a whole number) the position of the second digit from the right.

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adjective

1. amounting to ten in number.

idioms

1. take ten, to rest from what one is doing, especially for ten minutes.

ten. ² American  

abbreviation

1. tenor.

2. Music. tenuto.

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ten ¹ British  

/ tɛn /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one. It is the base of the decimal number system and the base of the common logarithm See also number

2. a numeral, 10, X, etc, representing this number

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

4. Also called: ten o'clock.  ten hours after noon or midnight

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to ten

      ten tigers

   2. ( as pronoun )

      to sell only ten

ten- ² British  

combining form

1. a variant of teno-

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ten More Idioms  

1. see count to ten; not touch with a ten-foot pole.

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Etymology

Origin of ten

before 900; Middle English ten ( e ), tenn ( e ), Old English tēn ( e ), tīen ( e ); cognate with Dutch tien, German zehn, Old Norse tīu, Gothic taihun, Latin decem, Greek déka, Sanskrit daśa

Example Sentences

It will be the world’s largest, covering ten lanes of traffic with 210 feet of vegetated bridge.

From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2026

“You can move from a workload on Nvidia to a workload on Cerebras with ten keystrokes,” Chief Executive Officer Andrew Feldman said Thursday in an interview.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

Commerce Department had approved around ten Chinese companies to buy Nvidia’s highly-advanced H200 chips.

From MarketWatch • May 14, 2026

Created by Jamie Thompson and ten coauthors from three continents, including six researchers from the University of Reading, the database combines seven years of research on cactus traits, habitats, and evolutionary relationships.

From Science Daily • May 13, 2026

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and count to ten, trying to get a handle on what I came here to ask her.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam