When you talk about the fifties, you are referring to numbers between 50 and 59. For example, if you are in your fifties, you are aged between 50 and 59. If the temperature is in the fifties, the temperature is between 50 and 59 degrees.
I probably look as if I'm in my fifties rather than my seventies.
3. plural noun
The fifties is the decade between 1950 and 1959.
He began performing in the early fifties.
fifty in British English
(ˈfɪftɪ)
nounWord forms: plural-ties
1.
the cardinal number that is the product of ten and five
2.
a numeral, 50, L, etc, representing this number
3.
something represented by, representing, or consisting of 50 units
determiner
4.
a.
amounting to fifty
fifty people
b.
(as pronoun)
fifty should be sufficient
Word origin
Old English fīftig
fifty in American English
(ˈfɪfti)
adjective
1.
five times ten
nounWord forms: pluralˈfifties
2.
the cardinal number between forty-nine and fifty-one; 50; L
Idioms:
the fifties
Word origin
ME fifti < OE fiftig: see five & -ty2
Examples of 'fifty' in a sentence
fifty
We are both in our early fifties.
The Sun (2016)
What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?
Christianity Today (2000)
Fifty thousand of the silver legal tender are being made available at their face value price.
The Sun (2015)
One lady in her early fifties was flushed with delight.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
To average about fifty over that time is incredible.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Fifty to sixty percent moisture by weight is required for proper fermentation.
Thompkins, Peter, Bird, Christopher Secrets of the Soil (1990)
There might be fifty people chasing one property at auction.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
They contain fifty times more of it than the atmosphere.
Oliver Morton Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet (2007)
It lists the symptoms fifty people with excessive anxiety experienced and the percentage who had each symptom.
Hambly, Dr Kenneth Banish Anxiety - how to stop worrying and take charge of your life (1991)
It follows that people who are really good at their jobs tend to be somewhere between their early forties and fifties.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
We are in our early fifties.
The Sun (2013)
Mr. Weston must be between forty and fifty.
Jane Austen Emma (1815)
I am surrounded by women in their fifties who are looking bleakly at their futures.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
They have been known for about fifty years and look quite different from any other pollen, fossil or modern.
Michael Boulter EXTINCTION: Evolution and the End of Man (2002)
Forty or fifty years ago, such a wish would have been destined to remain merely an unfulfilled fantasy for the average person.
Sedgbeer, Sandra The A-Z of Beauty Treatment (1994)
A bad problem or a great hope required an especially heavy candle and weights could reach fifty or sixty pounds or more.
Greeley, Andrew M. Sociology and Religion: A Collection of Readings (1995)
I finished third again, despite hitting my mount at least fifty five times in the finishing straight.
Frankie Dettori with Jonathan Powell FRANKIE: The Autobiography of Frankie Dettori (2004)
He uses a wide range of these pastel paints and although I didn't count them there must have been forty or fifty colours.
Improve Your Landscape Painting
In other languages
fifty
British English: fifty /ˈfɪftɪ/ NUMBER
Fifty is the number 50.
American English: fifty
Arabic: خَمْسُون
Brazilian Portuguese: cinquenta
Chinese: 五十
Croatian: pedeset
Czech: padesát
Danish: halvtreds
Dutch: vijftig
European Spanish: cincuenta
Finnish: viisikymmentä
French: cinquante
German: fünfzig
Greek: πενήντα
Italian: cinquanta
Japanese: 五十
Korean: 50
Norwegian: femti
Polish: pięćdziesiąt
European Portuguese: cinquenta
Romanian: cincizeci
Russian: пятьдесят
Latin American Spanish: cincuenta
Swedish: femtio
Thai: ห้าสิบ
Turkish: elli
Ukrainian: п'ятдесят
Vietnamese: năm mươi
Chinese translation of 'fifty'
fifty
(ˈfɪftɪ)
num
五十 (wǔshí)
he's in his fifties他50多岁(歲) (tā wǔshí duō suì)
during the fifties在50年代 (zài wǔshí niándài)
All related terms of 'fifty'
fifty-fifty
各半的 gèbàn de
she's pushing fifty
( inf ) 她将(將)近50岁(歲)了 tā jiāngjìn wǔshí suì le
one hundred and fifty
150 yībǎi wǔ
it cost me fifty pounds
这(這)花了我50英镑(鎊) zhè huāle wo wǔshí yīngbàng
to have a fifty-fifty chance (of success)
有百分之五十(成功)的机(機)会(會) yǒu bǎi fēn zhī wǔshí (chénggōng) de jīhuì