Sixteen

How to spell sixteen

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sixteen

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sixteen mean?

1. otherThe cardinal number equal to ten plus six; 16.

Sixteen in a sentence

• She turned sixteen on her last birthday.

• The recipe makes sixteen small muffins.

Where does sixteen come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descended from the Old English sixtiene, which simply combined six with -tiene, an old form of 'ten'. The -teen ending was used across the numbers thirteen through nineteen to signal 'ten more than the base number', so sixteen literally meant 'six and ten'. Both halves trace back through the ancient Germanic languages and ultimately to the same Indo-European roots that also gave Latin sex (six) and decem (ten), which is why the family resemblance to words like 'sextet' is still visible. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years, and the only mild trap is remembering the full -teen ending rather than clipping it.

How the word is built

• six (the numeral six)
• -teen (Old English -tene, 'ten more')