fifth
/fɪfθ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.78 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
The ordinal form of the number five.
noun
The person or thing in the fifth position.
noun
The person or thing in the fifth position.
noun
A quantity of liquor equal to one-fifth of an American gallon, or, more commonly, 750 milliliters (that is, three quarters of a liter).
American usage
noun
The musical interval between one note and another five scale degrees higher (the fifth note in a scale)
noun
The fifth voice in a polyphonic melody.
verb
To sing in the fifth voice in a polyphonic melody.
Example Sentences
- "On Friday, at a former Michelin factory in the north-east of the city, the finishing touches were being put in place for the fifth Dundee design festival, which opens on Monday."
- "Now I've heard there was a secret chord / That David played, and it pleased the Lord / But you don't really care for music, do ya? / It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth"
- "Another extension of strict organum is 'fifthing'. Fifthing is a note-against- note method of creating a two-part texture by improvising a second voice over the given tune, starting and ending each musical phrase at the octave and proceeding mainly in fifths above the tune at others times."
- "Each of these three groups contributes some special insight into the nature of fifthing and the context in which it was practiced."
- "A lisping young “Soundings,” or master’s assistant, sung out “I thecond the mothon,” instantly transferring his beer to our hero’s face. In short the resolution was thirded, fourthed, fifthed, and sixthed, all following suit with the swipes:[…]"
- "It was then moved, seconded, thirded, fourthed, and fifthed, “that Jarman be, and is hereby hung, and ought to be kicked.”"
Etymology
PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English fifthe, fifte, fift, from Old English fīfta (“fifth”), from Proto-Germanic *fimftô (“fifth”) or *femftô, equivalent to five + -th (ordinal suffix). Cognate with Scots fift, fyft (“fifth”), North Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), West Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), Dutch vijfde (“fifth”), Low German fifte, föfte, füfte (“fifth”), German fünfte (“fifth”), Danish femte (“fifth”), Swedish femte (“fifth”), Icelandic fimmta (“fifth”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /fɪfθ/
- British English: /fɪfθ/
Usage
- American usage
- Informal
- Transitive verb