Five

How to spell five

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce five

What does five mean?

1. otherThe cardinal number equal to four plus one, written 5.

Five in a sentence

• The meeting was rescheduled to five in the afternoon.

• She packed five shirts for the short business trip.

Where does five come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Five descends from the Old English fīf, the native Anglo-Saxon word for the number after four. It traces back to the Proto-Germanic fimfe, which also gave German fünf and Dutch vijf, and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root penkwe meaning 'five'. That same ancient root surfaces in less obvious places, including Latin quinque (seen in 'quintet') and Greek pente (seen in 'pentagon'), so distant cousins of five hide inside many counting words. The original 'm' sound in the Germanic form dropped away in English, leaving the long vowel and final 'v' we write today. Because it is one of the oldest and most frequently used words in the language, its spelling settled very early and has stayed remarkably stable.

How the word is built

• five (whole, from Old English fīf, the cardinal number)