aged

1. 1
   adjective

   Far advanced in years; having lived or existed for a long time.

   The aged scholar had spent six decades studying ancient manuscripts.

   Care homes provide daily support for aged residents who can no longer live alone.

   Similarelderly, old

   Oppositeyoung, youthful

2. 2
   SayAYJD/eɪdʒd/

   adjective

   Improved in flavor, character, or quality through being kept or matured over an extended period.

   Like wine that grows smoother and rounder the longer it rests in the barrel.

   The restaurant prides itself on its aged steaks, dry-cured for several weeks.

   An aged whiskey develops deep notes of oak and caramel.

   Similarmatured, mature

   Oppositeyoung

3. 3
   SayAYJD/eɪdʒd/

   adjective

   Used immediately before a number to state how old a person or thing is.

   The report surveyed residents aged eighteen to thirty-five.

   A boy aged twelve was the youngest competitor in the tournament.

   Note

   A label of age that follows its noun rather than coming before it: drivers aged 18 to 24, a man aged about 18. It takes ranges and approximations easily, and it can stand at the head of a sentence, as in Aged 18, he had no idea what to do. Its use is chiefly outside the US, yet The New York Times printed it in 1865 and again in Amy Chozick's 2012 report on young drivers.

4. 4
   nouncollectivepluralwith the

   Elderly people considered collectively as a group.

   The new policy expands medical coverage for the aged.

   Volunteers regularly visit the aged who live alone in the community.

   Similarelderly

   Oppositeyoung

   Note

   An adjective doing a noun's work, and only with the in front of it. You can write the aged, but you cannot write an aged or two ageds. It takes a plural verb (the aged are, not is) and names a whole class rather than any one person, as in health insurance and retirement income for the aged. The elderly is built the same way and serves as its closest synonym.

5. 5
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of age.

   She aged gracefully, her hair turning silver over the decades.

   The wine aged in oak barrels before bottling.

   Note

   One spelling covers both past forms of age, and the verb behind it can be used with or without an object. Without one, people and wine simply aged. With one, someone aged something: let it mature, made it look older than it was, or worked out how old it was. Only the uses with an object can be made passive, as in the cheese was aged for a year. That passive shades into the "matured" adjective.

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