ten

¹

[ten]

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.

adjective

1. amounting to ten in number.

ten.

²

abbreviation

1. tenor.

2. Music.,  tenuto.

ten

¹

/ 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

determiner

1. 1. amounting to ten

      ten tigers

   2. ( as pronoun )

      to sell only ten

ten-

²

combining form

1. a variant of teno-

Word History and Origins

Origin of ten¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of ten¹

Old English tēn; related to Old Saxon tehan, Old High German zehan, Gothic taihun, Latin decem, Greek deka, Sanskrit dasa

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

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

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

Example Sentences

“If this trend continues, the 20th century should go down as the last during which tens of millions of people died for lack of access to food,” the paper’s author Stephen Devereux reported.

Read more on Salon

Here, tens of thousands of lights instantly flip on for arguably Southern California’s most memorable Christmas light display.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

According to the United Nations, nearly 100,000 people have fled El-Fasher and surrounding areas since the city's fall, while tens of thousands remain trapped in famine conditions after an 18-month-long siege.

Read more on Barron's

Firms such as Blue Owl Capital have been particularly aggressive, financing massive data centers costing tens of billions of dollars for the likes of Meta Platforms and Oracle.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The simulation includes nearly ten million neurons, 26 billion synapses, and 86 connected brain regions, capturing both structure and activity at high resolution.

Read more on Science Daily