Word.ws English Dictionary

teens

/tiːnz/

teens is the plural of teen.

Noun

teens pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The numbers between thirteen and nineteen (inclusive).
    • The number of people at the meeting was in the teens.
  2. (plural, plural-only) The time of life between thirteen and nineteen years old; the teenage years.
    • She is in her teens.
    • a youngster just out of his teens
  3. (plural, plural-only) The second decade of a century: the 1910s, 2010s, etc. The oneties, the tens.
    • I was so excited for the teens to be over but then we get to the twenties and suddenly it's a pandemic!
  4. (plural, plural-only, rates) The range between 10 and 19.
    • Although it was a scorching desert by day, temperatures could drop as low as the teens at night.

Meaning of teen

Noun (1)

teen (plural teens)

  1. Synonym of teenager: a person between 13 and 19 years old (inclusive).
    • In the safety alert, the NTSB educates parents on the risks and outlines what they can do to protect their teens against marijuana-impaired driving.
    Synonyms:
    teenager
  2. (Internet, derogatory) A black teenager or a young black person.

Noun (2)

teen (plural teens)

  1. (archaic) Grief; sorrow; trouble.
    • In which the birds song many a lovely lay / Of Gods high praise, and of their loves sweet teene, / As it an earthly Paradize had beene […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  2. (archaic, obsolete) Vexation; anger; hate.

See all 8 meanings of teen

Origin of teens

The final syllable of the numbers from thirteen to nineteen. More at teen.

Words formed from teens

Phrases with teens

Words that rhyme with teens

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about teens

What does teens mean?
Teens means the numbers between thirteen and nineteen (inclusive).
What is teens the plural of?
Teens is the plural of teen.
What part of speech is teens?
Teens is a noun.
How do you pronounce teens?
Teens is pronounced /tiːnz/.

Words near teens in the dictionary

  1. teenologists
  2. teenophile
  3. teenophiles
  4. teenpreneur
  5. teenpreneurs
  6. teens
  7. teensat
  8. teensier
  9. teensiest
  10. teensit
  11. teensits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: teens (page history and authors); teen (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-teens.wav.

Cite this entry: “teens.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/teens. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.