elderly
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
older people considered as a group.
a collective noun referring to the segment of the population that is of advanced age.
Simple“The government is looking for new ways to provide better healthcare for the elderly.”
In context“The city council has allocated additional funding to ensure that the elderly have access to reliable public transport during the winter months.”
UsageAlways used with 'the' (the elderly) and takes a plural verb.
Synonymsseniorsthe agedAntonymsthe youth
elderly vs old — Elderly is a polite, formal term for people in late life, while old is a direct, neutral descriptor for anything that has existed for a long time.
Usage elderly couple · elderly people
“His father moved them to Fuencaliente, in Ciudad Real, where they lived in extreme poverty, leading him to sell his son to an elderly goatherd in the mountains.”
“Hospitals and GP surgeries are offering frail elderly patients appointments at the start and end of the day, when it is less hot, to make it easier for them to attend.”
From elder + -ly.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.