# dozen

Pronunciation: say "DUZ-uhn" /ˈdʌzən/

## Noun

1. A set of twelve things considered together as one group.
   - Simple: A group of twelve things, like twelve eggs or twelve buns.
   - _A dozen roses is a traditional gift on Valentine's Day._
   - _He ordered a dozen for the bakery's morning rush._
2. A large but unspecified quantity, reckoned loosely in multiples of twelve: more than ten, yet seldom as many as a hundred or two; many.
   - Simple: Quite a large number of people or things: more than ten, but not counted exactly.
   - _I've walked past that shop a dozen times without ever going in._
   - _Dozens of letters arrived in the weeks after the article appeared._
3. The number twelve, as called or marked in bingo and similar number games.
   - Simple: The number twelve, especially when called out in a game like bingo.
   - _When the caller announced a dozen, she completed her top row._
   - _A dozen came up early, giving him a strong start._
4. An old English unit for measuring ore, equal to twelve hundredweight.
   - Simple: An old British unit used to measure ore, equal to twelve hundredweight.
   - _Each dozen of ore was weighed before being loaded onto the carts._
   - _The foreman recorded two dozen of ore mined that week._

## Origin

From Middle English dozen, borrowed from Old French dozaine ("a group of twelve"), formed from doze ("twelve") plus the suffix -aine. This traces back to Latin duodecim ("twelve"), from duo ("two") and decem ("ten").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dozen (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).