fifth

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Coming after the fourth and before the sixth in order.

   This is the fifth time I have called her today.

2. 2
   noun

   The position number five in a series.

   Their team came in fifth out of several hundred entries.

3. 3
   noun

   One of five equal parts of something.

   About a fifth of the students passed the exam.

PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English fifthe, fifte, fift, from Old English fīfta (“fifth”), from Proto-Germanic *fimftô (“fifth”) or *femftô, equivalent to five + -th (ordinal suffix). Cognate with Scots fift, fyft (“fifth”), North Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), West Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), Dutch vijfde (“fifth”), Low German fifte, föfte, füfte (“fifth”), German fünfte (“fifth”), Danish femte (“fifth”), Swedish femte (“fifth”), Icelandic fimmta (“fifth”).

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