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five.

A numerical value equal to 5; the number following four and preceding six.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

num/ˈfaɪ̯v//ˈfaːv/General-South-African, Southern-US/ˈfaj(ʋ)/

  1. A numerical value equal to 5; the number following four and preceding six.

  2. Describing a group or set with five elements.

Where this word comes from

PIE word *pénkʷe Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe Proto-Germanic *fimf Proto-West Germanic *fimf Old English fīf Middle English fyf English five From Middle English fyf, fyve, from Old English fīf (“five”), from Proto-West Germanic *fimf (“five”), from Proto-Germanic *fimf (“five”), from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe. See also West Frisian fiif, Dutch vijf, German fünf, Norwegian and Swedish fem, Icelandic fimm; also Welsh pump, Latin quinque, Tocharian A päñ, Tocharian B piś, Lithuanian penki, Russian пять (pjatʹ), Albanian pesë, pêsë, Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte), Armenian հինգ (hing), Persian پنج (panj), Sanskrit पञ्च (páñca). Doublet of cinque, fin (“five currency units”), finnuf, pimp (“five”), ponzu, punch (“beverage”), and sengi (“currency”); related to Pompeii. The nasal *m in Proto-Germanic *fimf was lost through a sound change known as the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law.

noun/ˈfaɪ̯v//ˈfaːv/General-South-African, Southern-US/ˈfaj(ʋ)/

  1. The digit/figure 5.

    He wrote a five followed by four zeroes.

  2. A banknote with a denomination of five units of currency.

    Can anyone here change a five?

  3. Anything measuring five units, as length.

    All the fives are over there in the corner, next to the fours.

  4. A person who is five years old.

    The fives and sixes will have a snack first, then the older kids.

  5. Five o'clock.

    See you at five.

  6. A short rest, especially one of five minutes.

    Take five, soldier.

  7. A basketball team, club or lineup.

Where this word comes from

PIE word *pénkʷe Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe Proto-Germanic *fimf Proto-West Germanic *fimf Old English fīf Middle English fyf English five From Middle English fyf, fyve, from Old English fīf (“five”), from Proto-West Germanic *fimf (“five”), from Proto-Germanic *fimf (“five”), from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe. See also West Frisian fiif, Dutch vijf, German fünf, Norwegian and Swedish fem, Icelandic fimm; also Welsh pump, Latin quinque, Tocharian A päñ, Tocharian B piś, Lithuanian penki, Russian пять (pjatʹ), Albanian pesë, pêsë, Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte), Armenian հինգ (hing), Persian پنج (panj), Sanskrit पञ्च (páñca). Doublet of cinque, fin (“five currency units”), finnuf, pimp (“five”), ponzu, punch (“beverage”), and sengi (“currency”); related to Pompeii. The nasal *m in Proto-Germanic *fimf was lost through a sound change known as the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.