age

noun

(countable) 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)

(uncountable) The state of being old; the latter part of life.

(countable) Any particular stage of life.

(countable) The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested.

(uncountable) Maturity; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.

(countable) A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.

The time or era in history when someone or something was alive or flourished.

(countable) A great period in the history of the Earth.

(countable, geology) The shortest geochronologic unit, being a period of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of an epoch (or sometimes a subepoch).

(astrology) 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.

(countable) A period of one hundred years; a century.

(countable, hyperbolic) A long time.

(countable) Lifespan, lifetime; the total time that some being is alive from birth to death (or some category of beings, on average).

(countable, poker) 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.

(medicine, underwater diving) Initialism of arterial gas embolism.

(biochemistry) Initialism of advanced glycation end-product.

(biochemistry) Initialism of agarose gel electrophoresis.

(organic chemistry) Initialism of allyl glycidyl ether.

(countable, uncommon, possibly dated) A generation.

verb

(intransitive) To grow aged; to become old or older; to show marks of age.

(intransitive, of a statement, prediction, etc.) To suffer the passage of time so as to later be viewed or turn out in a certain way.

(transitive) To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to.

To allow to mature.

To treat or tamper with in order to give a false appearance of age.

(transitive) To determine the age of (the length of time that something has been alive or in existence).

(transitive) To indicate or reveal that (a person) has been alive for a certain period of time, especially a long one.

(transitive, figuratively) To allow (something) to persist by postponing an action that would extinguish it, as a debt.

(transitive, accounting) To categorize by age.

Roots

aetasage- · Latin · age, lifetime

Synonyms for age

eldn yearsn maturatev oldnessn eran senescencen senilityn epochn caducityn ancientnessn

Synonyms & related words for age

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of age — including eld, years, maturate, oldness, era, senescence. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to age

Explore words related to age — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include mature, older, senescent, younger, adulthood, oldster, thirties, sexagenary. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for age

Common synonyms for age include eld, years, maturate, oldness, era, senescence, senility, epoch — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does age come from?

The word age breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root age-, from Latin aetas (“age, lifetime”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.