fifth
pronunciation
How to pronounce fifth in British English:
UK [fɪfθ]
How to pronounce fifth in American English:
US [fɪfθ]
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- Noun:
- a quantity of liquor equal to one fifth of a United States gallon
- position five in a countable series of things
- a fifth part
- the musical interval between one note and another five notes away from it
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- Adjective:
- coming next after the fourth and just before the sixth in position
Word Origin
- fifth (adj.)
- c. 1200, fift, from Old English fifta "fifth," from fif "five" (see five) + -ta (see -th (1)). Normal development would have yielded fift; altered 14c. by influence of fourth. Compare Old Frisian fifta, Old Saxon fifto, Old Norse fimmti, Dutch vijfde, Old High German fimfto, German fünfte, Gothic fimfta. Noun meaning "fifth part of a gallon of liquor" is first recorded 1938, American English; the noun in the music sense is from 1590s. Fifth Avenue (in New York City) has been used figuratively for "elegance, taste" since at least 1858. Fifth wheel "superfluous person or thing" attested from 1630s. It also was the name of a useful device, "wheel-plate or circle iron of a carriage" placed on the forward axle for support and to facilitate turning (1825). And the phrase sometimes is turned on its head and given a positive sense of "that which a prudent driver ought to take with him in case one of the others should break" (1817). Fifth-monarchy-man, 17c. for "anarchist zealot," is a reference to Dan. ii:44.
Example
- 1. India is now fifth in wind power production .
- 2. A fifth of the employees at salgueiro are women .
- 3. The mining company earns a fifth of its profit from oil and gas resources .
- 4. As little as a week before the caucus the polls were still showing him in fourth or fifth place .
- 5. Hp 's webos is a distant fifth .