English Reference

Word

eighteenth

Phoneticseigh·teenth

US/ˈeɪˈtinθ/

UK/ˈeɪtiːnθ/

Definitions

01position in a sequence

A2

num. coming after the seventeenth and before the nineteenth.

num. the ordinal number matching the cardinal number eighteen in a sequence.

“My office is on the eighteenth floor of the building.”

“The eighteenth century was a period of significant intellectual and political upheaval across the European continent.”

Synonyms

18th

02a fraction

B2 · Math

n. one of eighteen equal parts of a whole.

n. one of eighteen equal parts into which a whole is divided.

“An eighteenth of the budget was spent on office supplies.”

“The mathematician calculated that each segment represented exactly one eighteenth of the total surface area.”

03a birthday party

B1

n. a party to celebrate someone's eighteenth birthday.

n. a social gathering or celebration held in honour of an individual's eighteenth birthday.

“Are you going to Sarah's eighteenth on Saturday night?”

“The venue was fully booked for a local student's eighteenth, resulting in significant noise complaints from the neighbours.”

Informal · British English

Usage

Usually used with a possessive, such as 'my eighteenth' or 'his eighteenth'.

Synonyms

birthday party

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English eightetenthe, eightetethe, from Old English eahtatēoþa, from Proto-Germanic *ahtudô tehundô. Equivalent to eighteen + -th (ordinal suffix).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry

Level
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Frequent
Updated

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English Reference