thirties

1. 1
   nounplural

   The period of a person's life from age 30 through age 39.

   Many people settle into their careers during their thirties.

   She married late in her thirties, just before turning forty.

   Note

   Here the decade belongs to a person, so it takes a possessive: in his thirties, during their thirties. The usual frame is in plus a possessive. A word like late narrows the time within the ten years, as in late in her thirties. Like the calendar decade, it has no singular form.

2. 2
   nounplural

   A ten-year period beginning with a year numbered xx30, most often the years from 1930 to 1939.

   The economic hardship of the thirties shaped an entire generation.

   Art deco design flourished throughout the thirties.

   Note

   Always plural and nearly always preceded by the: a job last held in the thirties. It can also stand before another noun, as in Michael T. Isenberg's phrase "the thirties films" (1975). The noun counts the years sharing the digits 30, from 1930 through 1939. The adjective is defined instead by the 31st through 40th years of a century, which is the stricter way of counting a century's decades.

3. 3
   nounplural

   A value or measurement falling between 30 and 39, as of a temperature or a numerical rate.

   Forecasters expect highs in the thirties through the weekend.

   His batting average hovered in the thirties all season.

   Note

   Forecasts and statistics use it to round a figure to its decade: the low thirties, highs in the thirties. Low and high push the band toward 30 or toward 39. The unit goes unspoken, so the reader works out from context whether degrees, a rate or an average is meant. The expression always appears in the plural, usually after in the.

4. 4
   adjective

   From or calling to mind the 31st through 40th years of a century, chiefly the 1930s.

   The film captured a distinctly thirties mood, all jazz and elegance.

   Collectors prize thirties furniture for its clean geometric lines.

   Note

   A style word for anything that recalls the 1930s, from a crêpe-de-Chine dress to a long drought. Grammatically it has no comparative, yet in speech it is freely intensified: Catherine George's Come Back to Me (1990) has "Very thirties," and "How thirties!" works as an exclamation. Unlike the noun, it stands without an article.

5. 5
   noun

   Plural of thirty.

   The accountant grouped the figures into thirties and forties.

   On the scoreboard, a row of thirties showed each round's points.

   Note

   A plural that follows whichever thirty is meant. Thirty can name the number itself, a thirty-second commercial, or, in slang, a rack of thirty beers. So two thirties can be two spots of airtime or two cases of beer. The same spelling also carries the decade meaning, which, unlike this plural, never appears in the singular.

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