age — English Dictionary

age
Pronunciations (2)
  • /eɪd͡ʒ/
  • eɪd͡ʒ

Noun

  1. The amount of time that some being has been alive, or that some thing has been in existence, as measured from its birth or origin until the present or until some other given reference point. (Often measured in number of years; alternatively in months, days, hours, etc.; see also the usage notes)

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples

    "What is the age of your oldest child?" — "He's ten." (ten years old)

    What were their ages at the time of their marriage?

    More examples (7)

    We can determine the age of fossils using radiometric dating.

    What is the present age of the earth?

    I have a daughter your age, and I tell her when I was your age I was already working.

    You should play with kids the same age as you.

    At your age, your mom and I'd already found a job.

    We both have kids under age four.

    Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.

  2. The state of being old; the latter part of life.

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    Antonyms
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was nothing between youth and age.

    Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age, sometimes age just shows up all by itself.

  3. Any particular stage of life.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples

    the age of infancy

  4. The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples

    the age of consent; the age of discretion

  5. Maturity; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    to come of age; she is now of age

  6. A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Synonyms
    Examples

    the golden age of cinema; the first age of colonialism; a bygone age

    Ours has been called the jet age, the atomic age, the space age. It is also, I submit, the television age.

    More examples (3)

    Encircling the marble altar was a congregation of leering shamen. Eerie chants of a bygone age, originating unknown eons before the memory of man, were being uttered from the buried recesses of the acolytes' deep lings ^([sic]).

    A survey of this magnitude could only be undertaken in the computer age; analyzing the returns by hand would be impossible.

    The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

  7. A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others. The time or era in history when someone or something was alive or flourished.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    the age of Pericles; the age of the dinosaurs

  8. A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others. A great period in the history of the Earth.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples

    The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age.

  9. A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others. The shortest geochronologic unit, being a period of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of an epoch (or sometimes a subepoch).

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples

    The Tithonian Age was the last in the Late Jurassic Epoch.

  10. One of the twelve divisions of a Great Year, equal to roughly 2000 years and governed by one of the zodiacal signs; a Platonic month.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    Mr Lewis says we are living in the age of Aquarius, which means that the world is at present passing through the zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the airy constellation.

  11. A period of one hundred years; a century.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Synonyms
  12. A generation.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Dated
    • possibly
    • Uncommon
    Examples

    There are three ages living in her house.

  13. A long time.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • excessive
    Examples

    It’s been an age since we last saw you.

  14. Lifespan, lifetime; the total time that some being is alive from birth to death (or some category of beings, on average).

    Usage
    • Countable
    Examples

    The age of man is three score years and ten.

    Thrice the age of a dog is that of a horse.

    More examples (2)

    Done at London, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, in the fifty-eighth year of my age.

    The CHAIRMAN said if Lord Bacon had asserted that man's age exceeded that of all other living creatures, he must have included the patriarchs in his calculation. Without doubt the age of many animals exceeded that of man. [...] Indeed, if the assumed age of the patriarchs be correct, it is against our own experience, it being an admitted fact that the duration of human life has increased. The age of the patriarchs was by some attributed to the effect of certain waters upon the cartilages.

  15. The entitlement of the player to the left of the dealer to pass the first round in betting, and then to come in last or stay out; also, the player holding this position; the eldest hand.

    Usage
    • Countable

Verb

  1. To grow aged; to become old or older; to show marks of age.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    He grew fat as he aged.

    I am aging; that is, I have a whitish, or rather a light-coloured, hair here and there. Sober thinking brings them

    More examples (3)

    However, if you have the misfortune of being a child actor born on the show, watch out. […] The point is these kids age quickly.

    As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time.

    “Most of the scribes here came after the Rending. Many of them stopped casting the spells that prolong their life, so they are aging. More slowly than humans, but still aging.” / “How old are you?” / “Biologically?” He smiled. “Around thirty. But I’ve lived for over four hundred years.”

  2. To grow aged; to become old or older; to show marks of age. To suffer the passage of time so as to later be viewed or turn out in a certain way.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • usually
    • of a statement
    Examples

    His prediction that we didn't stand a chance hasn't aged well, now that we've won the cup.

    The sitcom was made in the 1970s and its casual sexism has not aged well.

  3. To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Grief ages us.

    To look at the hair by itself you'd say it was actually quite pretty, but on her head the gray sure ages her.

  4. To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to. To allow to mature.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    We age the whiskey for five years.

  5. To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to. To treat or tamper with in order to give a false appearance of age.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    This clock is modern, but it has been deliberately aged in an attempt to make it seem antique.

  6. To determine the age of (the length of time that something has been alive or in existence).

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    There are several ways to age trees.

  7. To indicate or reveal that (a person) has been alive for a certain period of time, especially a long one.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    I clearly remember hearing the news of Kennedy's assassination. That ages me.

    Mr. [David] Brinkley started out with network news. We got our news- I think it was the Huntley-Brinkley Report. I'm probably aging myself now, okay?

  8. To allow (something) to persist by postponing an action that would extinguish it, as a debt.

    Usage
    • Figurative
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Money's a little tight right now. Let's age our bills for a week or so.

  9. To categorize by age.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    One his first assignments was to age the accounts receivable.

Noun

  1. how long something has existed

    Broader terms
    Examples

    it was replaced because of its age

  2. an era of history having some distinctive feature

    Broader terms
    Examples

    we live in a litigious age

  3. a time of life (usually defined in years) at which some particular qualification or power arises

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    she was now of school age

    tall for his eld

  4. a prolonged period of time

    Examples

    we've known each other for ages

    I haven't been there for years and years

  5. a late time of life

    Broader terms
    Examples

    old age is not for sissies

    he's showing his years

    More examples (3)

    age hasn't slowed him down at all

    a beard white with eld

    on the brink of geezerhood

Verb

  1. begin to seem older; get older

    Broader terms
    Examples

    The death of his wife caused him to age fast

  2. grow old or older

    Broader terms
    Examples

    She aged gracefully

    we age every day — what a depressing thought!

    More examples (1)

    Young men senesce

  3. make older

    Antonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    The death of his child aged him tremendously

Word forms
agesagesagingageingagedaged

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