age
Pluralages
Pluralages
- 1How long a person, animal, or thing has lived or existed.
Like a number that starts at zero when you are born and goes up by one every year.
She started school at the age of five.
Can you guess the age of that big oak tree?
UsageUse be for age: she is ten. You can also say at the age of ten.
Note
- 2A period in history known for certain events or people, as in 'the Stone Age' or 'in Shakespeare's age'.
Long ago, people lived in an age without electricity or cars.
The internet began a new age of fast communication.
UsageSay the age of + something: the age of computers.
- 3To get older, or to make someone or something get older or look older.
People age more slowly when they stay active.
The paint on the old fence has aged and turned gray.
UsageThe -ing form is aging or ageing. Often used with well or quickly: she has aged well.
Note
- 4A stage of life, like being a child, a teenager, or an adult.
Kids at that age love to play outside all day.
She is at the age when babies start to walk.
UsageSay at your age or at that age.
- 5
- 6Being old, or the time late in life.
Her grandmother's hands were weak with age.
Age made the leather of the chair crack and fade.
UsageSay with age: grey with age.
Similarsenility, elderliness, senescence, dotage
Oppositeyouth
- 7To show or make clear that someone is old or has lived a long time.
Talking about old TV shows can age you in front of younger friends.
She left the dates off her résumé so they would not age her in the job interview.
UsageSay that ages me when a memory shows you are older.
Similardate
Note
- 8The age when the law lets you do something, or when you are treated as a full adult.
He cannot vote yet because he has not reached voting age.
The drinking age is twenty-one in the United States.
UsageUsed in phrases like voting age and drinking age: he has reached voting age.
- 9To get better with time, or let food or drink do this, like wine or cheese.
The farmer ages the cheese in a cool cellar for a year.
They age the meat for several weeks before selling it.
UsageSay they age cheese in a cellar.
Similarmature
Less common meanings
- 10
- 11A very long time in the Earth's past. In geology, a set part of a longer span of time called an epoch.
These rocks formed in an age when a warm sea covered this land.
Dinosaurs lived during an age that lasted millions of years.
Note
- 12
- 13To come to seem good or bad as time passes.
That joke did not age well.
Her advice aged well, and people still follow it today.
UsageSay a joke didn't age well: it seems bad now.
- 14To find out how old something or someone is.
Scientists can age a tree by counting the rings in its trunk.
The vet aged the stray dog by checking its teeth.
Similardate
- 15All the people born around the same time, thought of as one group.
- 16A length of time equal to one hundred years.
- 17In astrology, a period of about two thousand years connected to one star sign.
- 18To let something keep going by putting off the step that would end it.
- 19To sort things into groups by how old they are.
- 20In some card games, the player just left of the dealer, who may wait and bet last.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
The word 'age' came through Old French from Latin, going back to a Latin word meaning lifetime. The verb comes from the noun.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- English 'age' came through Old French from Latin. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate Latin root, aevum, means 'lifetime'. en.wiktionary.org
- The verb 'age' derives from the noun. en.wiktionary.org