Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word elderly. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word elderly, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say elderly in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word elderly you have here. The definition of the word elderly will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofelderly, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
1988, Anne Tyler, chapter 1, in Breathing Lessons:
The car was parked toward the rear of the shop, an elderly gray-blue Dodge. It looked better than it had in years.
Usage notes
Because the adjective elderly and (especially) the noun elderly are not entirely accepted endonymically (that is, among adults who are senior citizens), the word's exonymic use is increasingly avoided in favor of alternatives. Because the words senior (adjective or noun), old (adjective or noun), and senior citizen also occasionally elicit annoyance endonymically, the alternative older adults is increasingly relied on, at least until the euphemism treadmill might someday turn still further.