seventy
seventy — number
1. the value 70, used before a noun to say how many things or people there are
the value 70, used before a noun to say how many things or people there are
The hotel has seventy rooms available for guests.
seventy + noun for counting rooms
Hamza invited over seventy people to his wedding party.
over seventy for approximate amounts
The charity collected more than seventy thousand dollars this year.
It takes about seventy minutes to drive from the station to the airport.
about seventy for rough time estimates
Seventy students from our school passed the final exam.
- seventy dollars
- seventy people
- seventy percent
- seventy miles
- seventy years
Grammar Patterns
seventy + noun
Common Mistakes
seventy — noun
1. the figure or word 70, when you talk about it as the name of a number
the figure or word 70, when you talk about it as the name of a number
If you multiply seven by ten, the answer is seventy.
seventy as the result of a calculation
Can you write the number seventy in words on this form?
Seventy is an even number that can be divided by ten.
seventy as a mathematical concept
The teacher asked the class to count from sixty to seventy.
Grammar Patterns
the number seventy
Usage Note
Unlike the number sense, this sense treats 'seventy' as a countable noun (e.g., 'a seventy' is possible but rare). It is most common in arithmetic or when naming the figure itself.
2. the ages, years, or amounts that are between 70 and 79
the ages, years, or amounts that are between 70 and 79
Adaeze's grandfather is in his seventies and still very active.
in his/her + seventies for age
The temperature stayed in the low seventies all week long.
Harper grew up in the nineteen-seventies in a small town.
the nineteen-seventies for a decade
House prices in this area are now in the mid-seventies.
Rohan's grandmother is in her late seventies and still travels.
- early seventies
- mid-seventies
- late seventies
- in one's seventies
- the nineteen-seventies
- low seventies
Grammar Patterns
in + possessive + seventies
the + seventies
Usage Note
Always used in the plural form 'seventies'. Commonly follows a possessive pronoun ('his', 'her', 'my', 'their') for age, or the definite article ('the') for decades or temperature ranges. Can be modified by 'early', 'mid-', or 'late' to specify a narrower part of the range.
Common Mistakes
Word family
- seventeennumberA1
- seventeenthnumberA2
- seventiethadjectiveA2
- seventiethnounA2
Etymology
The word 'seventy' comes from Old English 'seofontig', which was formed by joining 'seofon' (seven) and '-tig' (a group of ten). This pattern of combining a number with '-tig' also gave us 'twenty', 'thirty', 'forty', 'fifty', 'sixty', 'eighty', and 'ninety'. The spelling changed over time from 'seofontig' to 'seventy' as English pronunciation shifted.