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age

Pronunciation: /eɪd͡ʒ/

The English word “age” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. 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)
  2. The state of being old; the latter part of life.
  3. Any particular stage of life.
  4. The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested.
  5. Maturity; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.
  6. A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
  7. The time or era in history when someone or something was alive or flourished.
  8. A great period in the history of the Earth.
  9. The shortest geochronologic unit, being a period of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of an epoch (or sometimes a subepoch).
  10. One of the twelve divisions of a Great Year, equal to roughly 2000 years and governed by one of the zodiacal signs; a Platonic month.
  11. A period of one hundred years; a century.
  12. A generation.
  13. A long time.
  14. Lifespan, lifetime; the total time that some being is alive from birth to death (or some category of beings, on average).
  15. The entitlement of the player to the left of the dealer to pass the first round in betting, and then to come in last or stay out; also, the player holding this position; the eldest hand.

verb

  1. To grow aged; to become old or older; to show marks of age.
  2. To suffer the passage of time so as to later be viewed or turn out in a certain way.
  3. To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to.
  4. To allow to mature.
  5. To treat or tamper with in order to give a false appearance of age.

Etymology

From Middle English age, Old French aage, eage, edage, from an assumed Vulgar Latin *aetāticum, derived from Latin aetātem, itself derived from aevum (“lifetime”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“vital force”). Compare French âge. Displaced native Old English ieldu. The verb is from Middle English agen, from the noun. Originally found mostly as a participial adjective, probably an…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.