# fifteenth

/fɪfˈtinθ/ (US) · /fˈɪftiːnθ/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/fifteenth
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. position in a sequence

numeral · CEFR A2

coming after the fourteenth and before the sixteenth.

For teachers: the ordinal number matching the cardinal number fifteen in a series.

- Today is the fifteenth of May, so the rent is due.
- The fifteenth chapter of the biography provides a detailed account of the author's travels through Southeast Asia during the late 1970s.

### 2. a fraction

noun · CEFR B2

one of fifteen equal parts of a whole.

For teachers: one of fifteen equal parts into which a whole is or may be divided.

- If you divide the cake into fifteen pieces, each piece is one fifteenth.
- The surveyor calculated that a fifteenth of the total land area would need to be reserved for public drainage systems.

### 3. musical interval

noun · CEFR C2 · Technical

a very large musical gap between two notes, covering two octaves.

For teachers: the musical interval comprising two full octaves; a compound interval of a second octave.

- The singer reached a high note that was a fifteenth above the starting note.
- The organist utilised a stop that sounded a fifteenth above the unison pitch, adding a brilliant shimmer to the final chord.

## Examples

- Today is the fifteenth of May.
- She finished in fifteenth place out of over two hundred runners in the city marathon.
- The manuscript dates back to the fifteenth century, providing historians with a rare glimpse into the linguistic shifts occurring during that transitional period.

---

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.