age

[ eyj ]
See synonyms for age on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the length of time during which a being or thing has existed; length of life or existence to the time spoken of or referred to: trees of unknown age; His age is 20 years.

  2. a period of human life, measured by years from birth, usually marked by a certain stage or degree of mental or physical development and involving legal responsibility and capacity: the age of discretion; the age of consent; The state raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 years.

  1. the particular period of life at which a person becomes naturally or conventionally qualified or disqualified for anything: He was over age for military duty.

  2. one of the periods or stages of human life: a person of middle age.

  3. advanced years; old age: His eyes were dim with age.

  4. a particular period of history, as distinguished from others; a historical epoch: the age of Pericles; the Stone Age; the age of electronic communications.

  5. the period of history contemporary with the span of an individual's life: He was the most famous architect of the age.

  6. a generation or a series of generations: ages yet unborn.

  7. a great length of time: I haven't seen you for an age. He's been gone for ages.

  8. the average life expectancy of an individual or of the individuals of a class or species: The age of a horse is from 25 to 30 years.

  9. Psychology. the level of mental, emotional, or educational development of a person, especially a child, as determined by various tests and based on a comparison of the individual's score with the average score for persons of the same chronological age.

  10. Geology.

    • a period of the history of the earth distinguished by some special feature: the Ice Age.

    • a unit of geological time, shorter than an epoch, during which the rocks comprising a stage were formed.

  11. any of the successive periods in human history divided, according to Hesiod, into the golden, silver, bronze, heroic, and iron ages.

  12. Cards.

verb (used without object),aged, ag·ing or age·ing.
  1. to grow old: He is aging rapidly.

  2. to mature, as wine, cheese, or wood: a heavy port that ages slowly.

verb (used with object),aged, ag·ing or age·ing.
  1. to make old; cause to grow or seem old: Fear aged him overnight.

  2. to bring to maturity or a state fit for use: to age wine.

  1. to store (a permanent magnet, a capacitor, or other similar device) so that its electrical or magnetic characteristics become constant.

  2. to expose (a dye or dyed cloth) to steam or humid air in order to fix the dye.

  3. to stabilize the electrical properties of (a device) by passing current through it.

Idioms about age

  1. of age, Law.

    • being any of several ages, usually 21 or 18, at which certain legal rights, as voting or marriage, are acquired.

    • being old enough for full legal rights and responsibilities.

Origin of age

1
First recorded in 1225–75; (for the noun) Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French aage, eage, equivalent to aé, eé (from Latin ae(vi)tās “age, lifetime,” from aev(um) “eternity, period, time” + -itās -ity) + -age -age; verb derivative of the noun

synonym study For age

6. Age, epoch, era, period all refer to an extent of time. Age usually implies a considerable extent of time, especially one associated with a dominant personality, influence, characteristic, or institution: the age of chivalry. Epoch and era are often used interchangeably to refer to an extent of time characterized by changed conditions and new undertakings: an era ( or epoch ) of invention. epoch sometimes refers especially to the beginning of an era: the steam engine—an epoch in technology. A period may be long or short, but usually has a marked condition or feature: the glacial period; a period of expansion.

Other words for age

Other words from age

  • in·ter·age, adjective
  • pre·age, verb, pre·aged, pre·ag·ing.
  • subage, noun
  • un·ag·ing, adjective

Other definitions for -age (2 of 4)

-age

  1. a suffix typically forming mass or abstract nouns from various parts of speech, occurring originally in loanwords from French (voyage; courage) and productive in English with the meanings “aggregate” (coinage; peerage; trackage), “process” (coverage; breakage), “the outcome of” as either “the fact of” or “the physical effect or remains of” (seepage; wreckage; spoilage), “place of living or business” (parsonage; brokerage), “social standing or relationship” (bondage; marriage; patronage), and “quantity, measure, or charge” (footage; shortage; tonnage; towage).

Origin of -age

2
Middle English <Old French <Latin -āticum, neuter of -āticus adj. suffix; an extension of Latin -āta-ate1, whose range of senses it reflects closely

Other definitions for A.G.E. (3 of 4)

A.G.E.

abbreviation
  1. Associate in General Education.

Other definitions for Ag.E. (4 of 4)

Ag.E.

abbreviation
  1. Agricultural Engineer.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use age in a sentence

  • Here began indeed, in the drab surroundings of the workshop, in the silent mystery of the laboratory, the magic of the new age.

  • The Rev. Alonzo Barnard, seventy-one years of age, accompanied by his daughter, was present.

    Among the Sioux | R. J. Creswell
  • In a warlike age this peacefulness of a monarch was the great and supernatural phenomenon.

    Solomon and Solomonic Literature | Moncure Daniel Conway
  • He began his military career at the age of 11, and continued in the service nearly 60 years.

  • His hair was darker—almost brown save at the temples, where age had faded it to an ashen colour.

    St. Martin's Summer | Rafael Sabatini

British Dictionary definitions for age (1 of 2)

age

/ (eɪdʒ) /


noun
  1. the period of time that a person, animal, or plant has lived or is expected to live: the age of a tree; what age was he when he died?; the age of a horse is up to thirty years

  2. the period of existence of an object, material, group, etc: the age of this table is 200 years

    • a period or state of human life: he should know better at his age; she had got beyond the giggly age

    • (as modifier): age group

  1. the latter part of life

    • a period of history marked by some feature or characteristic; era

    • (capital when part of a name): the Middle Ages; the Space Age

  2. generation: the Edwardian age

  3. geology palaeontol

    • a period of the earth's history distinguished by special characteristics: the age of reptiles

    • the period during which a stage of rock strata is formed; a subdivision of an epoch

  4. myth any of the successive periods in the legendary history of man, which were, according to Hesiod, the golden, silver, bronze, heroic, and iron ages

  5. (often plural) informal a relatively long time: she was an age washing her hair; I've been waiting ages

  6. psychol the level in years that a person has reached in any area of development, such as mental or emotional, compared with the normal level for his chronological age: See also achievement age, mental age

  7. age before beauty (often said humorously when yielding precedence) older people take precedence over younger people

  8. of age adult and legally responsible for one's actions (usually at 18 or, formerly, 21 years)

verbages, ageing, aging or aged
  1. to grow or make old or apparently old; become or cause to become old or aged

  2. to begin to seem older: to have aged a lot in the past year

  1. brewing to mature or cause to mature

Origin of age

1
C13: via Old French from Vulgar Latin aetatīcum (unattested), from Latin aetās, ultimately from aevum lifetime; compare aeon

British Dictionary definitions for -age (2 of 2)

-age

suffix forming nouns
  1. indicating a collection, set, or group: acreage; baggage

  2. indicating a process or action or the result of an action: haulage; passage; breakage

  1. indicating a state, condition, or relationship: bondage; parentage

  2. indicating a house or place: orphanage

  3. indicating a charge or fee: postage

  4. indicating a rate: dosage; mileage

Origin of -age

2
from Old French, from Late Latin -āticum, noun suffix, neuter of -āticus, adjectival suffix, from -ātus -ate 1 + -icus -ic

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with age

age

see act one's age; coon's age; golden age; in this day and age; of age; ripe old age; under age.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.