fifth
UK/fɪfθ/
fifth adjective: the ordinal form of the number five.
Adjective
fifth (not comparable)
- The ordinal form of the number five.
- On Friday, at a former Michelin factory in the north-east of the city, the finishing touches were being put in place for the fifth Dundee design festival, which opens on Monday.2024 September 21, Eve Livingston, “‘Students want to stay here now rather than disappear to London’: how design transformed the city of Dundee”, in The Guardian
Noun
fifth (plural fifths)
- The person or thing in the fifth position.
- The fifth gear of a transmission.
- One of five equal parts of a whole: one-fifth.
- Synonyms:
- ⅕
- A quantity of liquor equal to one-fifth of an American gallon, or, more commonly, 750 milliliters (that is, three quarters of a liter).
- The musical interval between one note and another five scale degrees higher (the fifth note in a scale)
- Now I've heard there was a secret chord / That David played, and it pleased the Lord / But you don't really care for music, do ya? / It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth1984, Leonard Cohen, “Hallelujah”, in Various Positions
- The fifth voice in a polyphonic melody.
Verb
fifth (third-person singular simple present fifths, present participle fifthing, simple past and past participle fifthed)
- To sing in the fifth voice in a polyphonic melody.
- Another extension of strict organum is 'fifthing'. Fifthing is a note-against- note method of creating a two-part texture by improvising a second voice over the given tune, starting and ending each musical phrase at the octave and proceeding mainly in fifths above the tune at others times.1996, Music in Early English Religious Drama: Minstrels playing, page 510
- Each of these three groups contributes some special insight into the nature of fifthing and the context in which it was practiced.1978, Discant and the Theory of Fifthing
- To support something fifth, after four others have already done so.
- A lisping young “Soundings,” or master’s assistant, sung out “I thecond the mothon,” instantly transferring his beer to our hero’s face. In short the resolution was thirded, fourthed, fifthed, and sixthed, all following suit with the swipes:[…]1854 January, “Tregonhorke’s First Trip in a Man-of-War”, in Hunt’s Yachting Magazine, volume the third, London: Hunt and Son, […]; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., […], page 14
- It was then moved, seconded, thirded, fourthed, and fifthed, “that Jarman be, and is hereby hung, and ought to be kicked.”1892 December 31, Talbot Baines Reed, “Tom, Dick, and Harry. A School Story.”, in The Boy’s Own Paper, volume XV, number 729, page 212, column 2
- To divide by five.
- 3/5 has been through fifthing. 2/3 has been through thirding. Therefore, 3/5 now needs thirding and 2/3 needs fifthing2006, Mathematics for Dyslexics: Including Dyscalculia, page 188
Proper noun capitalized: Fifth
Fifth
- The Fifth Amendment.
- The right not to give self-incriminating testimony.
- Fifth Avenue.
- […] besides marrying Nate Archibald and living happily every after in the ivy-covered brick town house just off Fifth that she already had picked out2003, Cecily Von Ziegesar, Because I'm worth it
- Fifth Street.
fifth meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
fifth in Hindi
- Ordinal form of the number 5 — see also 5th
- पांचवां pāñcvā̃, पाँचवाँ pā̃cvā̃, पाँचवां pā̃cvā̃, पंचम pañcam, पंजवी pañjvī, पंजुम pañjum
- one of five equal parts of a whole
- पंजवी pañjvī
fifth in Tamil
- Ordinal form of the number 5 — see also 5th
- ஐந்தாம் aintām, ஐந்தாவது aintāvatu
fifth in Urdu
- Ordinal form of the number 5 — see also 5th
- پانچواں pāñcvā̃
fifth in Bengali
- Ordinal form of the number 5 — see also 5th
- পঞ্চম poncom
More languagesFewer languages
- fifth in Telugu
- పంచమము pañcamamu, ఐదవ aidava, అయిదవ ayidava
- fifth in Malayalam
- അഞ്ചാം añcāṁ
- fifth in Punjabi
- ਪੰਜਵਾਂ pañjvā̃
- fifth in Gujarati
- પાંચમું pā̃cmũ
- fifth in Sanskrit
- पञ्चमः pañcamaḥ
- fifth in Sinhala
- පස්වෙනි pasweni
- fifth in Tagalog
- ikalima, panlima, kalima, sangkalima
- fifth in Arabic
- خَامِس ḵāmis, خَامِسَة ḵāmisa, خُمْس ḵums
- fifth in Malay
- kelima
- fifth in Indonesian
- kelima
- fifth in Persian
- پنجم panjom, پنجیک panjyek
- fifth in Thai
- ที่ห้า tîi-hâa
- fifth in Vietnamese
- thứ năm
- fifth in Myanmar
- ပဉ္စမ panyca.ma.
Examples of fifth in a sentence
- The prince's newborn baby is fifth in line to the throne.
- My half-orc barbarian reached fifth level before he was squashed by a troll.
- The composition modulates upwards through the cycle of fifths, eventually returning to the original key.
Synonyms of fifth
Forms of fifth
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | fift |
| alternative form (obsolete) | fiveth |
| Noun | |
| plural | fifths |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fifths |
| present participle | fifthing |
| past participle | fifthed |
| past | fifthed |
Origin of fifth
PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English fifthe, fifte, fift, from Old English fīfta (“fifth”), from Proto-Germanic *fimftô (“fifth”) or *femftô, equivalent to five + -th (ordinal suffix). Cognate with Scots fift, fyft (“fifth”), North Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), West Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), Dutch vijfde (“fifth”), Low German fifte, föfte, füfte (“fifth”), German fünfte (“fifth”), Danish femte (“fifth”), Swedish femte (“fifth”), Icelandic fimmta (“fifth”).
(Fifth Amendment): From the name of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, protecting various rights in US legal proceedings.
Words formed from fifth
- Fifth Amendment
- fifth base
- fifth column
- fifth cousin
- fifth cranial nerve
- Fifth Cycle
- fifth-day fits
- fifth disease
- fifth estate
- fifth force
- fifth freedom rights
- fifth gear
- fifth grade
- fifthly
- Fifth Month
- fifth nerve
- fifthness
- fifth normal form
- fifth position
- fifth quarter
- fifth-rate
- fifth rate
- fifth slip
- Fifth Sun
- fifth toe
- fifth wall
- fifth wheel
- Fifth World
- Israel Day on Fifth
- plead the fifth
- Revenge of the Fifth
- seventy-fifth
- augmented fifth
- diminished fifth
- flatted fifth
- perfect fifth
- take the fifth
- typhoon fifth
Phrases with fifth
- Fifth Day
- one fifth
- fifth toes
- fifth gears
- fifth rates
- fifth slips
- fifth walls
- Fifth Empire
- fifth forces
- fifth grader
- fifth grades
- fifth nerves
26 more phrasesFewer phrases
- fifth wheels
- fifth columns
- fifth cousins
- fifth graders
- fifth day fits
- fifth quarters
- Fifth Republic
- pled the fifth
- took the fifth
- fifth columnism
- fifth columnist
- taken the fifth
- takes the fifth
- fifth columnists
- Fifth Monarchism
- Fifth Monarchist
- pleads the fifth
- taking the fifth
- the Fifth Beatle
- Fifth Monarchists
- pleaded the fifth
- Fifth Monarchy Man
- Fifth Monarchy Men
- pleading the fifth
- fifth cranial nerves
- three score and fifth
Words that rhyme with fifth
Questions about fifth
- What does fifth mean?
- Fifth means the ordinal form of the number five.
- What is fifth in Hindi?
- Fifth in Hindi is पांचवां (pāñcvā̃), पाँचवाँ (pā̃cvā̃), पाँचवां (pā̃cvā̃). See Fifth meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is fifth?
- Fifth can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce fifth?
- Fifth is pronounced /fɪfθ/ (UK).
Words near fifth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fifth (page history and authors); Fifth (page history and authors); అయిదవ (Telugu) (page history and authors); ਪੰਜਵਾਂ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); પાંચમું (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fifth.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fifth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fifth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.