six

A1 Topic:Numbers & Quantity

US /sɪks/ UK /sɪks/ See IPA manual

Freq #537

Meanings

1

num
the number 6, coming after five and before seven

There are six eggs left in the carton.
2

noun
the number 6

She wrote a large six at the top of the page.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

2 noun · the number 6 half a dozen

Word family

Forms sixes

Related forms vi

Appears in

Idioms (2)

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Proverbs (1)

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Six feet of earth make all men equal

Tongue twisters (3)

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Six Slick Saplings
Six slick slim slippery slimy sleek slender sickly saplings.

Keep /sl/ together through slick, slim, slippery, slimy, sleek and slender. The start changes to /s/ without /l/ in sickly and saplings.
Six Slippery Snails
Six slippery snails slid slowly seaward.

Move directly from /s/ into /l/ in slippery, slid and slowly, and into /n/ in snails. Avoid inserting an extra vowel into those clusters.
Six Thick Thistle Sticks
Six thick thistle sticks.

Contrast /s/ with /θ/ while keeping the /ks/ ending of six. Thistle starts with /θ/ and has a silent written t; sticks starts with /st/.

Simplified etymology

Six is inherited from Old English and descends from the same ancient root as Latin sex and Greek hexa, both meaning “six.” Those forms also underlie words such as sextet, sextuple, and hexagon.

Etymology

PIE word *swéḱs From Middle English six, from Old English six, from Proto-West Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. Compare West Frisian seis, Dutch zes, Low German söss, sess, German sechs, Norwegian and Danish seks, also Latin sex, Ancient Greek ἕξ (héx), Sanskrit षष् (ṣaṣ). Doublet of sice. Toilet sense predates military usage.

six Old English *sehs Proto-Germanic *swéḱs Proto-Indo-European

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Topics

Numbers & Quantity

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# six

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A1
**Part of speech:** num, noun
**IPA (US):** /sɪks/
**IPA (UK):** /sɪks/
**Frequency rank:** 537

## Meanings
1. the number 6, coming after five and before seven
2. the number 6

## Examples
- There are six eggs left in the carton.
- She wrote a large six at the top of the page.

## Related Forms
- vi

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: six
- Root: *sehs
- Root: *swéḱs

## Etymology
PIE word *swéḱs From Middle English six, from Old English six, from Proto-West Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. Compare West Frisian seis, Dutch zes, Low German söss, sess, German sechs, Norwegian and Danish seks, also Latin sex, Ancient Greek ἕξ (héx), Sanskrit षष् (ṣaṣ). Doublet of sice. Toilet sense predates military usage.

## AI Etymology
Six: PIE word; swéḱs From Middle English six, from Old English six, from Proto-West Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. Compare West Frisian seis, Dutch zes, Low German söss, sess, German sechs, Norwegian and Danish seks, also Latin sex, Ancient Greek ἕξ (héx), Sanskrit षष् (ṣaṣ). Doublet of sice. Toilet sense predates military usage. Important forms in the word's history include Middle English six, Old English six, Proto-West Germanic *sehs, Proto-Germanic *sehs, Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. In current use it includes senses such as the number 6, coming after five and before seven and the number 6.

## Topics
- Numbers & Quantity

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six

Meanings

Thesaurus

Appears in

Idioms (2)

Proverbs (1)

Tongue twisters (3)

Simplified etymology

Etymology

Topics

External links

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