When you talk about the eighties, you are referring to numbers between 80 and 89. For example, if you are in your eighties, you are aged between 80 and 89. If the temperature is in the eighties, the temperature is between 80 and 89 degrees.
He was in his late eighties and had become the country's most respected elder statesman.
3. plural noun
The eighties is the decade between 1980 and 1989.
He ran a property development business in the eighties.
eighty in British English
(ˈeɪtɪ)
nounWord forms: plural-ies
1.
the cardinal number that is the product of ten and eight
See also number (sense 1)
2.
a numeral, 80, LXXX, etc, representing this number
3. (plural)
the numbers 80–89, esp a person's age or the year of a particular century
4.
the amount or quantity that is eight times as big as ten
5.
something represented by, representing, or consisting of 80 units
determiner
6.
a.
amounting to eighty
eighty pages of nonsense
b.
(as pronoun)
eighty are expected
Word origin
Old English eahtatig; related to Old Frisian achtig, Old High German ahtozug
eighty in American English
(ˈeɪti)
adjective
1.
eight times ten
nounWord forms: pluralˈeighties
2.
the cardinal number between seventy-nine and eighty-one; 80; LXXX
Idioms:
the eighties
Word origin
ME eighteti < OE (hund)eahtatig: see eight & -ty2
Examples of 'eighty' in a sentence
eighty
After his retirement in the early Eighties, he became a familiar voice worldwide as a commentator.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
I am now in my early eighties and walk two dogs for 30 minutes each morning and garden much of the day.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Eighty billion pounds of investment over two decades has delivered a lot.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Twenty percent of the men of the first generation reached the age of eighty.
Divine, Robert A. (editor) & Breen, T. H & Frederickson, George M & Williams, R. Hal America Past and Present (1995)
He remained president until he died well past the age of eighty.
Peter F. Drucker THE ESSENTIAL DRUCKER (2001)
About eighty thousand dollars per hour.
Frederic Alan Maxwell BAD BOY BALLMER (2002)
Eighty pounds they set him back.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
My blonde phase came in the early Eighties.
The Sun (2010)
That was almost eighty years ago - but his warning stands true today.
The Sun (2010)
Eighty years and he still hadn't taken hold yet.
Christianity Today (2000)
By 1879 the clubs had nearly eighty thousand members.
Michael Burleigh Earthly Powers: Religion and Politics in Europe from the Enlightenment to the GreatWar (2005)
So you wait ages for an Eighties comeback and then two come along at once.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Now we're not forced to retire at any age and will still be around into our eighties.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
It was under strong inward pressure of this kind that Fred had taken the wise step of depositing the eighty pounds with his mother.
George Eliot Middlemarch (1872)
I shall not spend any money this year: you will have all the eighty pounds.
George Eliot Daniel Deronda (1876)
On the starboard quarter, eighty miles away, he could see the target being attacked.
Len Deighton Bomber
At the beginning of the war, the Nationalist forces had eighty thousand men.
Paul Preston The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge
By the eighties age group, this was down to 10 per cent.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Before he set out, Fred got the eighty pounds from his mother.
George Eliot Middlemarch (1872)
Eighty thousand women a year lose their lives as a result of heart disease - that's one woman in four.
Westcott, Patsy Alternative Health Care for Women (1991)