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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

old.

Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/əʊld/Received-Pronunciation[ɒʊɫd]Received-Pronunciation/əwld/British, Southern, Standard[ɔw(ɫ)d]British, Southern, Standard
  1. Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.

    an old abandoned building
    an old friend
  2. Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time. Of a living being, having lived for most of the expected years.

    a wrinkled old man
  3. Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time. Of a perishable item, having existed for most of, or more than, its shelf life.

    an old loaf of bread
  4. Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time. Of a species or language, belonging to a lineage that is distantly related to others.

    the ginkgo is one of the oldest living trees
    Basque is the oldest language in Europe
  5. Having been used and thus no longer new or unused.

    I find that an old toothbrush is good to clean the keyboard with.
  6. Having existed or lived for the specified time.

    How old are they? She’s five years old and he's seven. We also have a young teen and a two-year-old child.
    My great-grandfather lived to be a hundred and one years old.
  7. Of an earlier time. Former, previous.

    My new car is not as good as my old one.  a school reunion for Old Etonians
  8. Of an earlier time. That is no longer in existence.

    The footpath follows the route of an old railway line.
  9. Of an earlier time. Obsolete; out-of-date.

    That is the old way of doing things; now we do it this way.
  10. Of an earlier time. Familiar.

    When he got drunk and quarrelsome they just gave him the old heave-ho.
    She always makes the same old excuses.
  11. Of an earlier time. Being a graduate or alumnus of a school, especially a public school.

    UK
  12. Tiresome after prolonged repetition.

    Your constant pestering is getting old.
  13. Said of subdued colors, particularly reds, pinks and oranges, as if they had faded over time.

  14. A grammatical intensifier, often used in describing something positive, and combined with another adjective.

    We're having a good old time.
    My next car will be a big old SUV.
  15. Indicating affection and familiarity.

    informal
  16. Designed for a mature audience; unsuitable for children below a certain age.

  17. Excessive, abundant.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English old, oold, from Old English ald, eald (“old, aged, ancient, antique, primeval”), from Proto-West Germanic *ald, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“grown-up”), originally a participle form, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eltós (“grown, tall, big”). Cognates Cognate with Scots aald, auld (“old”), Yola yola, yolaw, yold, yole (“old”), North Frisian ool, ual, uuil, uul, üülj (“old”), Saterland Frisian oold (“old”), West Frisian âld (“old”), Alemannic German altu, oalt, oalts, olt, àltà (“old”), Bavarian oid (“old”), Central Franconian alt, aod, auw, oot (“old”), Cimbrian and German alt (“old”), Dutch oud (“old”), German Low German old, oolt (“old”), Luxembourgish al (“old”), Mòcheno òlt (“old”), Vilamovian aołd (“old”), Yiddish אַלט (alt, “old”), Danish ældre (“elderly”), Faroese eldri (“elder, older”), Icelandic aldinn (“old”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk eldre (“elderly”), Swedish äldre (“elderly”), Crimean Gothic alt (“old”), Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃 (alþeis, “old”), Latin altus (“high, tall, grown big, lofty”). Related to eld.

noun/əʊld/Received-Pronunciation[ɒʊɫd]Received-Pronunciation/əwld/British, Southern, Standard[ɔw(ɫ)d]British, Southern, Standard
  1. People who are old; old beings; the older generation, taken as a group.

    countable · invariable · plural · plural-only · uncountable
    A civilised society should always look after the old in the community.
  2. A person older than oneself, especially an adult in relation to a teenager.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    I'm not letting an old wreck my good time today.
    I'm not letting any olds wreck my good time today.
  3. One's parents.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    I had to sneak out to meet my girlfriend and tell the olds I was going to the library.
  4. A typically dark-coloured lager brewed by the traditional top-fermentation method.

    Australia · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English old, oold, from Old English ald, eald (“old, aged, ancient, antique, primeval”), from Proto-West Germanic *ald, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“grown-up”), originally a participle form, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eltós (“grown, tall, big”). Cognates Cognate with Scots aald, auld (“old”), Yola yola, yolaw, yold, yole (“old”), North Frisian ool, ual, uuil, uul, üülj (“old”), Saterland Frisian oold (“old”), West Frisian âld (“old”), Alemannic German altu, oalt, oalts, olt, àltà (“old”), Bavarian oid (“old”), Central Franconian alt, aod, auw, oot (“old”), Cimbrian and German alt (“old”), Dutch oud (“old”), German Low German old, oolt (“old”), Luxembourgish al (“old”), Mòcheno òlt (“old”), Vilamovian aołd (“old”), Yiddish אַלט (alt, “old”), Danish ældre (“elderly”), Faroese eldri (“elder, older”), Icelandic aldinn (“old”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk eldre (“elderly”), Swedish äldre (“elderly”), Crimean Gothic alt (“old”), Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃 (alþeis, “old”), Latin altus (“high, tall, grown big, lofty”). Related to eld.

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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.