# three score and ten

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/three-score-and-ten
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

Seventy, being the number of years in a full lifetime of traditionally-expected duration.

## Examples

- He lived to be three score and ten.
- Most people hope to reach at least three score and ten.
- My grandfather celebrated his birthday with a large party, having reached the age of three score and ten.
- Modern medicine helps many people live much longer than the three score and ten years mentioned in ancient texts.
- The retired professor spent his three score and ten years building a massive library that he eventually donated to the local university.
- Reflecting on his long life, the author noted that he had surpassed the traditional span of three score and ten years.

## Origin

The phrase comes from Psalm 90:10 in the King James Bible: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten." A score is twenty, so threescore and ten is seventy — the span the psalm gives as a typical human lifetime. The wording stuck as a traditional way of naming the age of seventy, and by extension the length of an ordinary life. It now sounds deliberately old-fashioned or literary, used more for its biblical flavour than as a plain statement of number.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.