five  (f īv)
Share:
n.1. The cardinal number equal to 4 + 1. 2. The fifth in a set or sequence. 3. Something, such as a quintet or a basketball team, that has five parts, units, or members. 4. A five-dollar bill. 5. fives (used with a sing. verb) Sports One of several forms of handball originating in England and played mainly at British schools and universities, in which only the receiving side can score points. Idiom: give me/gimme five Used when offering a high-five, as in congratulation.
five adj. & pron. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
This website is best viewed in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. Some characters in pronunciations and etymologies cannot be displayed properly in Internet Explorer.