Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word age. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word age, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say age in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word age you have here. The definition of the word age will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofage, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
(countable) 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)
"What is the age of your oldest child?" — "He's ten." (ten years old)
What were their ages at the time of their marriage?
We can determine the age of fossils using radiometric dating.
What is the present age of the earth?
2013 July 1, Peter Wilby, “Finland’s education ambassador spreads the word”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 16 July 2017; republished as “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, London, 2013 July 19, page 30:
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.
(uncountable) The state of being old; the latter part of life.
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.
the golden age of cinema; the first age of colonialism; a bygone age
1970, Jim Theis, “The Eye of Argon”, in OSFAN, volume 10, Chapter 3½, page 33:
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 .
2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel: The world’s thirst for oil could be nearing a peak. That is bad news for producers, excellent for everyone else.”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 1 August 2013:
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.
The time or era in history when someone or something was alive or flourished.
1911 April 10, The Evening News, Sydney, page 8, column 2:
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.
(countable)lifespan, lifetime; the total time that some being is alive from birth to death (or some category of beings, on average).
The age of man is three score years and ten.
Thrice the age of a dog is that of a horse.
1872, George Duncan Gibb, The Physical Condition of Centenarians, as Derived from Personal Observation in Nine Genuine Examples, London, page 13:
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.
The age of a person or an animal is often given just as a number, implied to be a number of years. For example "What is the age of your son?" — "Ten." (meaning ten years). With other subjects, units are specified even when years. For example "What is the age of this fossil?" — "Three million years." (not "Three million.")
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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.
(intransitive, of a statement, prediction, etc.) To suffer the passage of time so as to later be viewed or turn out in a certain way.
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.
(transitive) To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to.
Grief ages us.
1998 Fall, Mare Freed, “Aluhana”, in The Antioch Review, volume 56, number 4:
To look at the hair by itself you'd say it was actually quite pretty, but on her head the gray sure ages her.
To allow to mature.
We age the whiskey for five years.
To treat or tamper with in order to give a false appearance of age.
This clock is modern, but it has been deliberately aged in an attempt to make it seem antique.
(transitive) To determine the age of (the length of time that something has been alive or in existence).
There are several ways to age trees.
(transitive) To indicate or reveal that (a person) has been alive for a certain period of time, especially a long one.
I clearly remember hearing the news of Kennedy's assassination. That ages me.
1992 June 14, This Week with David Brinkley (television production), spoken by Carville, via ABC:
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?
(transitive,figuratively) To allow (something) to persist by postponing an action that would extinguish it, as a debt.
Money's a little tight right now. Let's age our bills for a week or so.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Munster form of ag(used before a possessive determiner)
1939, Peig Sayers, “Inghean an Cheannaidhe”, in Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, Description d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études; 270) (overall work in French), Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, page 193:
Ní raibh aoinne cloinne age n-a muinntir ach í agus do mhéaduigh sin uirrim agus grádh na ndaoine don inghean óg so.
Her parents had no children but her, and that increased the esteem and love of the people for this young girl.