How to spell sixteen

hear itsix·teen/'sɪks'tin/nounLong vowels

What it means: The number after fifteen.

In a sentence: There are sixteen apples in the basket.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double e. Often misspelled as sixtenn or sixsteen.

Same family: six, sixth, sixteenth, sixty, sixteen-year-old. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Sixteen” comes from Old English “sixtēne,” literally meaning “six and ten.” Many European languages build teen numbers the same way, combining a smaller number with “ten.”

Try spelling it

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Words like this

invitation · gene · phenomenon · prove · exercise · halloween · supreme · possible

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