dozen

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   denoting a quantity consisting of 12 items or units

   Most supermarkets will sell you a dozen eggs in a carton.

2. 2
   noun

   the cardinal number that is the sum of eleven and one

   Bakeries often sell bagels by the dozen.

3. 3
   noun

   A set of twelve.

   Can I have a dozen eggs, please?

4. 4
   noun

   A large, unspecified number of, comfortably estimated in small multiples of twelve, thus generally implied to be significantly more than ten or twelve, but less than perhaps one or two hundred; many.

   There must have been dozens of examples just on the first page.

5. 5
   noun

   An old English measure of ore containing 12 hundredweight.

   The dozen as a measure for iron ore remained almost completely constant at 12 cwts. during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

6. 6
   noun

   The number twelve.

7. 7
   noun

   A member of a K-pop group who has no talent.

Etymology

From Middle English dozen, dozein, doseyne, from Old French dozaine (“a group of twelve”) (Modern French douzaine), from doze (“twelve”) + -aine (“-ish”), from Latin duodecim (“twelve”) (from duo (“two”) + decem (“ten”)) + -ana (“-ish”).