tenth

American  

[tenth] / tɛnθ /

adjective

1. next after ninth; being the ordinal number for ten.

2. being one of ten equal parts.

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noun

• tenths
  plural

1. one of ten equal parts, especially of one (1/10).

2. the member of a series preceding the eleventh and following the ninth.

3. Music.

   1. a tone distant from another tone by an interval of an octave and a third.

   2. the interval between such tones.

   3. the harmonic combination of such tones.

4. Also called tenth's place. (in decimal notation) the position of the first digit to the right of the decimal point.

adverb

1. in the tenth place; tenthly.

tenth British  

/ tɛnθ /

adjective

1. (usually prenominal)

   1. coming after the ninth in numbering or counting order, position, time, etc; being the ordinal number of ten: often written 10th

   2. ( as noun )

      see you on the tenth

      tenth in line

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noun

1. 1. one of 10 approximately equal parts of something

   2. ( as modifier )

      a tenth part

2. one of 10 equal divisions of a particular measurement, etc

   decibel

3. the fraction equal to one divided by ten ( 1/ 10 )

4. music

   1. an interval of one octave plus a third

   2. one of two notes constituting such an interval in relation to the other

adverb

1. Also: tenthly. after the ninth person, position, event, etc

1. Also: tenthly. as the 10th point: linking what follows with the previous statements, as in a speech or argument

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tenths
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of tenth

before 1150; Middle English tenthe, Old English. See ten, -th ², tithe

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tenth tenths

About a tenth of the approximately 2,400 patients who come to Catalina Island Health’s five-bed emergency room need to go to the mainland for a higher level of care.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

In 2024, the same team used AI to recover 15 complete columns from a scroll owned by the Institut de France, amounting to less than one tenth of the entire document.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

About one tenth of the US population claim Irish heritage but they are not a homogeneous voting bloc.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

The unit’s $9.3 billion in sales last year accounted for less than a tenth of J&J’s total revenue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

Layla gave it to Ivy for her tenth birthday and said the color looked good with Ivy’s pale red hair.

From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake

Johannes cut three tenths off his Division I winning time last week.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026

A move up or down by tenths or even hundredths of a percentage point has the power to move markets and revise economic expectations.

From Barron's ● May 22, 2026

You might be a couple of tenths behind one session, just try a little bit more, 'OK, I've gone off, I've had a crash', and you've got to restart.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026

The current split is unusual, because historically PCE inflation runs a few tenths of a percentage point lower than CPI.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026

“No, I’m not sure. You told me to watch for any rise in my temperature and I’m telling you I’m up six tenths of a degree.”

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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