fifteen

• fiveteen (obsolete) [17th–18th c.]
• fifteene (obsolete) [16th–19th c.]

From Middle English fiftene, from Old English fīftīene, fīftēne, from Proto-Germanic *fimftehun. Cognate with West Frisian fyftjin, Dutch vijftien, German fünfzehn, Danish femten. Equivalent to five +‎ -teen.

• (next word stressed near the first syllable)

  (UK, US) enPR: fĭf'tēn, IPA^(key): /ˈfɪf.tiːn/

• Audio (US):

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• (next word stressed after the first syllable)

  (UK, US) enPR: fĭf-tēn', IPA^(key): /fɪfˈtiːn/

• Rhymes: -iːn

fifteen (cardinal, ordinal fifteenth)

1. The cardinal number occurring after fourteen (14) and before sixteen (16).
   • 1960 December 17, C.I. Sulzberger, “Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 August 2025:

     The fifteen men are, of course, the fifteen allies and the dead man's chest is the strategic principle on which their alliance is founded and which is now moribund.

   • 1968, Christopher Hodder-Williams, “Hands”, in Fistful of Digits, London: Coronet Books, published 1972, →ISBN, page 125:

     She was, in fact, constitutionally impervious to statistics and preferred to study the be-headphoned group of fifteen or so lethargic wanderers who were taking even less notice of the remorseless squawkings than she was.

   • December 2019/January 2020, Wayne Curtis, “Discover Cuba’s Other Rum Cocktail: El Presidente”, in Garden & Gun‎^[2], archived from the original on 15 August 2021:

     I first sipped an El Presidente fifteen years ago, in Havana, at a sidewalk café across from a vendor selling postcards of Che Guevara. It was revelatory.

• Roman numerals: XV
• Arabic numerals: 15

• Previous: fourteen
• Next: sixteen

• (15 times): quindecuple
• (15-line): quindecuplet
• (15-man): quindecemvir
• (15-year): quindecennial
• (15-sided shape): quindecagon

fifteen (plural fifteens)

1. (Ireland, mostly in plural) An Irish traybake made with crushed digestive biscuits, marshmallows and glacé cherries combined with condensed milk and desiccated coconut.

• fifteens