Fifty
otherThe cardinal number equal to five times ten; 50.
How to spell fifty
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce fifty
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does fifty mean?
- otherThe cardinal number equal to five times ten; 50.
Fifty in a sentence
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The venue holds exactly fifty people.
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She turned fifty at her birthday party last month.
Where does fifty come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word comes from the Old English fiftig, a straightforward joining of fif, meaning 'five', and the suffix -tig, which marked a count of ten. So fiftig literally meant 'five tens', exactly as it still does today. This same -tig suffix sits behind every English decade word from twenty through ninety, and it traces back to Proto-Germanic, with cousins in Dutch vijftig and German fünfzig. The spelling shift from the v-sound of 'five' to the f of 'fifty' happened because the consonant fell at a different point in the word, where the older f spelling was preserved. That little swap, five with a v but fifty with an f, is the main thing that trips writers up.
How the word is built
- fif- (from fif, the Old English form of 'five')
- -ty (from -tig, a suffix meaning 'group of ten')
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