sixth

Pluralsixths

Formssixths, sixthing, sixthed

1. 1
   adjective

   The ordinal form of the number six, marking the position that comes right after the fifth.

   Their team took the sixth spot in the final standings.

   He celebrated his sixth birthday with a party in the park.

   Note

   An ordinal that once ended in -t: Old English siexta became Middle English sixte, and English said sixt before the modern form, which now reads simply as six plus the ordinal ending -th. The King James Bible of 1611 already has "the ſixth day." In figures it shortens to 6th, or VIth with Roman numerals. It takes no comparison, because nothing is more sixth than something else.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The person or thing occupying the sixth position in a sequence or ranked order.

   Five climbers had already reached the summit, and the sixth was close behind.

   Among the entries, the sixth was awarded the top prize.

   Note

   Used of a single place in a line, this noun has no plural, since any sequence has only one sixth. The plural sixths belongs instead to the fractional sense and to musical intervals. It nearly always comes with the, as in the sixth to arrive or the sixth on the list, and it stands in for "the sixth one."

3. 3
   nouncountable

   One of six equal parts into which a whole is divided.

   Under the will, each heir received a sixth of the family estate.

   Roughly a sixth of the harvest was lost to the late frost.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The interval between one note and another five notes higher in the scale, such as C to A for a major sixth or C to A-flat for a minor one.

   The cellist added a sixth below the violin's melody for a richer texture.

   Many folk tunes harmonize the melody in sixths.

   Note

   Musicians count intervals inclusively, so the note five steps up is the sixth: C, D, E, F, G, A. The major sixth spans nine semitones, from C up to A. The minor sixth spans eight, from C up to A-flat. When two lines move together at this distance, the melody is said to be harmonized in sixths, and the plural is the usual form in that phrase.

5. 5
   verbnonstandardtransitive

   To divide a number or quantity by six, the same as multiplying its denominator by six.

   To split the bill fairly, just sixth the total.

   Why would anyone use sixthing when any (N − a²) divisible by 6 would also be divisible by 3? The answer is that sometimes the numerator and/or the denominator is simpler in sixthing,

   1993, Dead Reckoning: Calculating Without Instruments

   Note

   A rare, nonstandard verb at home in the shorthand of mental arithmetic. Dead Reckoning: Calculating Without Instruments (1993) speaks of "sixthing" because the numerator or denominator sometimes comes out simpler that way. Outside that kind of calculating talk it sounds odd, and "divide by six" or "take a sixth of" is the safe choice. It inflects regularly: sixths, sixthing, sixthed.

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