fifteen

English

English numbers (edit)
 ←  14 15 16  → 
    Cardinal: fifteen
    Ordinal: fifteenth
    Abbreviated ordinal: 15th

Alternative forms

  • fiveteen (obsolete) [17th–18th c.]
  • fifteene (obsolete) [16th–19th c.]

Etymology

PIE word
*pénkʷe

From Middle English fiftene, from Old English fīftīene, fīftēne, from Proto-Germanic *fimftehun. Cognate with West Frisian fyftjin, Dutch vijftien, German fünfzehn, Danish femten. Equivalent to five +‎ -teen.

Pronunciation

  • (next word stressed near the first syllable)
    (UK, US) enPR: fĭf'tēn, IPA(key): /ˈfɪf.tiːn/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • (next word stressed after the first syllable)
    (UK, US) enPR: fĭf-tēn', IPA(key): /fɪfˈtiːn/
  • Rhymes: -iːn

Numeral

fifteen (cardinal, ordinal fifteenth)

  1. The cardinal number occurring after fourteen (14) and before sixteen (16).
    • 1960 December 17, C.I. Sulzberger, “Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest”, in The New York Times[1]:
      The fifteen men are, of course, the fifteen allies and the dead man's chest is the strategic principle on which their alliance is founded and which is now moribund.
    • 1968, Christopher Hodder-Williams, “Hands”, in Fistful of Digits, London: Coronet Books, published 1972, →ISBN, page 125:
      She was, in fact, constitutionally impervious to statistics and preferred to study the be-headphoned group of fifteen or so lethargic wanderers who were taking even less notice of the remorseless squawkings than she was.

Synonyms

  • Roman numerals: XV
  • Arabic numerals: 15

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Noun

fifteen (plural fifteens)

  1. (Ireland, mostly in plural) An Irish traybake made with crushed digestive biscuits, marshmallows and glacé cherries combined with condensed milk and desiccated coconut.

See also