Eighteenth

How to spell eighteenth

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce eighteenth

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does eighteenth mean?

1. adjectiveComing after the seventeenth in a sequence; number eighteen in order.

Eighteenth in a sentence

• Her eighteenth birthday was celebrated with a quiet family dinner.

• The eighteenth chapter finally explains the twist in the plot.

Where does eighteenth come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English number eighteen, which descends from the Old English eahtatēne, a compound of eahta meaning 'eight' and tēne meaning 'ten more', so it literally meant 'eight plus ten'. The ordinal ending -th comes from the Old English suffix -tha (also seen in fourth, sixth and tenth), which turned a counting number into a position in a sequence. All of these pieces are solidly Germanic, sharing roots with the German achtzehn and the Dutch achttien. The spelling trap lives in the silent 'gh', a leftover of an old guttural sound once heard in eight, and in the 'eigh' vowel cluster that breaks the usual 'i before e' habit. Because the 'gh' is no longer pronounced, writers are tempted to drop it, even though it has been frozen into the spelling since Middle English.

How the word is built

• eight (number eight)
• -teen (ten more)
• -th (ordinal suffix)