Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use old in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Old means of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time. Example: “I find that an old toothbrush is good to clean the keyboard with.”

Examples of old by meaning

adjectiveOf an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.

  • an old abandoned building
  • an old friend
  • When asked why the devices were retrofitted on older models instead of newer ones, Sarno said the MTA typically uses older car models when making modifications in case there are any unwanted effects.2025 March 9, Nic F. Anderson, “Tired of subway delays? The MTA wants to fix that by strapping Google smartphones to New York trains”, in...

adjectiveOf a living being, having lived for most of the expected years.

  • a wrinkled old man

adjectiveOf a perishable item, having existed for most of, or more than, its shelf life.

  • an old loaf of bread

adjectiveOf a species or language, belonging to a lineage that is distantly related to others.

  • the ginkgo is one of the oldest living trees
  • Basque is the oldest language in Europe

adjectiveHaving been used and thus no longer new or unused.

  • I find that an old toothbrush is good to clean the keyboard with.

adjectiveHaving existed or lived for the specified time.

  • How old are they? She’s five years old and he's seven. We also have a young teen and a two-year-old child.
  • My great-grandfather lived to be a hundred and one years old.
  • The day was only a few hours old.

adjectiveFormer, previous.

  • My new car is not as good as my old one. a school reunion for Old Etonians
  • But over my old life, a new life had formed.1994, Michael Grumley, Life Drawing

adjectiveThat is no longer in existence.

  • The footpath follows the route of an old railway line.

More sentences with old

  • My old encyclopedia has been gathering dust on the shelf for the past decade.From the entry encyclopedia
  • "I never could abide shoemakers," said an old servant,—and it ended in her marrying one.From the entry abide
  • The old man had craggy, uncultured features, but had bright, intelligent eyes.From the entry craggy
  • In many cultures, a baby turns one year old a year after its birth.From the entry one
  • The fives and sixes will have a snack first, then the older kids.From the entry five
  • I'm the oldest student in my year because I've repeated twice.From the entry year
  • As he grew older, he opened to new ways of doing things.From the entry open
  • Mormonism is a new religion, while Zoroastrianism is an old one.From the entry religion
  • We believe that the market for the new widget will be the older homeowner.From the entry market
  • I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.From the entry first
  • This old text needs translation into modern English before it is published.From the entry translation
  • It’s asking a lot of this old car to make it all the way up to Scotland.From the entry ask
  • This stand of pines is older than the one next to it.From the entry stand
  • First we removed all the handles; next, we stripped off the old paint.From the entry next
  • She looks like she's in her early twenties, perhaps 21 or 22 years old?From the entry twenty
  • I'm still much too young to drive, and my grandpa is already far too old.From the entry too
  • The employment picture for the older middle class is not so good.From the entry picture
  • Mine for only a week so far, it already feels like an old friend.From the entry mine
  • As we get older, maintaining an active social life should be a priority of ours.From the entry ours
  • I was running short, so I touched old Bertie for a fiver.From the entry touch
  • The tanker is 25 years old but she is still very seaworthy.From the entry she
  • The older boy won, even though his opponent had been granted a handicap of five meters.From the entry handicap
  • I met my old friend in the street, so we chatted for a while.From the entry chat
  • It felt really strange to be back in my old kindergarten.From the entry feel
  • The old silver lends an air of elegance to an otherwise drab room.From the entry lend
  • Poorer children often have to wear whatever an older sibling has outgrown.From the entry outgrow

Meaning of old

  1. adjective Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.
  2. adjective Of a living being, having lived for most of the expected years.
  3. adjective Of a perishable item, having existed for most of, or more than, its shelf life.

Full definition of old

Questions about old in a sentence

How do you use old in a sentence?
Old is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “I find that an old toothbrush is good to clean the keyboard with.”
What is a short sentence with old?
“an old friend”
What does old mean?
Old means of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: old (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use old in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/old. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.