Seventeen

How to spell seventeen

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce seventeen

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does seventeen mean?

1. otherThe cardinal number equal to ten plus seven, written 17.

Seventeen in a sentence

• There were seventeen candidates on the shortlist.

• She turned seventeen the week before her driving test.

Where does seventeen come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from Old English seofontiene, a compound formed from seofon, meaning 'seven', and the suffix -tene or -tiene, which was a worn-down form of the word for 'ten'. The -teen ending, shared by all the numbers from thirteen through nineteen, literally signals 'ten more than' the base number, so seventeen began life meaning quite plainly 'seven and ten'. The roots are thoroughly Germanic, with close cousins in Old Norse, Old Frisian, and modern German siebzehn. The spelling stayed remarkably stable over the centuries, and the only mild trap for adults is remembering that it keeps the full 'seven' intact, unlike 'forty' which drops the 'u' of 'four'. Because the parts are so transparent, seventeen has resisted the kind of contraction that reshaped some other number words.

How the word is built

• seven (the base number)
• -teen (from Old English -tene, meaning 'ten more')