eleven
/əˈlɛv.ən/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.12 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
3
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
num
The cardinal number occurring after ten and before twelve. Represented as 11 in Arabic digits.
noun
A cricket team of eleven players. Hence first eleven - the team of best cricket players (at a school), second eleven - the "B" team, etc.
noun
A football team of eleven players; the starting lineup.
noun
Deliberate misspelling of !!, used to amplify an exclamation, imitating someone who forgets to press the shift key while typing exclamation points.
Slang
noun
A number off the charts of a hypothetical scale of one to ten.
American usage; Countable; Slang
noun
A number off the charts of a hypothetical scale of one to ten.
American usage; Countable; Slang
Example Sentences
- "It was a thunderstormy morning, eleven o'clock, with great dashes of rain pounding against the windows."
- "I know most girls say that they've known their bezzies since they started primary school together, bonding over handmade Mother's Day cards or a hatred of the egg-and-spoon race, but I've only known Taryn since I was eleven[…]"
- "It was also a work of fiction in which another work of fiction (Gulliver's Travels) was real; that Chinese box of an idea is wonderful to discover when you're eleven."
- "Sneeze is well known by all followers of U. of D. athletics for his great work at halfback on the Flyers' eleven for the past four seasons [...]"
- "A: SUM1 Hl3p ME im alwyz L0ziN!!?!"
- "B: y d0nt u just g0 away l0zer!!1!!one!!one!!eleven!!1!"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos Proto-Germanic *ainaz Proto-Indo-European *leyp- Proto-Germanic *lībaną Proto-Germanic *-lif Proto-Germanic *ainalif Proto-West Germanic *ainalif Proto-West Germanic *ainalifun Old English endleofan Middle English elleven English eleven From Middle English elleven, enleven, eleven, from Old English endleofan; from Proto-Germanic *ainalif (“one left”) (i.e., one left over after having already counted to ten), a compound of *ainaz and *-lif, from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“leave, remain”). Compare West Frisian alve, Low German ölven, Dutch elf, German elf, Icelandic ellefu, Danish and Norwegian elleve.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *leyp-, elleven, endleofan, *ainalif
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈlɛv.ən/
- British English: /ɪˈlɛv.ən/