fifteen

Definition

The cardinal number occurring after fourteen (14) and before sixteen (16).

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.

Example Sentences

• "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."
• "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."
• "I first sipped an El Presidente fifteen years ago, in Havana, at a sidewalk café across from a vendor selling postcards of Che Guevara. It was revelatory."

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