Library / English Dictionary

AGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

How long something has existed

Example:

it was replaced because of its age

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("age" is a kind of...):

property (a basic or essential attribute shared by all members of a class)

Attribute:

immature; young ((used of living things especially persons) in an early period of life or development or growth)

old ((used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age)

new (not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered)

old (of long duration; not new)

immature (not yet mature)

mature (having reached full natural growth or development)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "age"):

chronological age (age measured by the time (years and months) that something or someone has existed)

bone age (a person's age measured by matching their bone development (as shown by X rays) with bone development of an average person of known chronological age)

developmental age (a measure of a child's development (in body size or motor skill or psychological function) expressed in terms of age norms)

fertilization age; fetal age; gestational age (the age of an embryo counting from the time of fertilization)

mental age (the level of intellectual development as measured by an intelligence test)

oldness (the quality of being old; the opposite of newness)

newness (the quality of being new; the opposite of oldness)

oldness (the opposite of youngness)

youngness (the opposite of oldness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A time of life (usually defined in years) at which some particular qualification or power arises

Example:

tall for his eld

Synonyms:

age; eld

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("age" is a kind of...):

time of life (a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "age"):

voting age (the age at which a person is old enough to vote in public elections)

age of consent (the minimum age for marrying without parental consent or the minimum age for consensual sexual relations; intercourse at an earlier age can result in a charge of assault or statutory rape; the age differs in different states of the Union)

legal age; majority (the age at which persons are considered competent to manage their own affairs)

minority; nonage (any age prior to the legal age)

drinking age (the age at which is legal for a person to buy alcoholic beverages)

Holonyms ("age" is a part of...):

life; life-time; lifespan; lifetime (the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death))

Derivation:

age (grow old or older)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A late time of life

Example:

on the brink of geezerhood

Synonyms:

age; eld; geezerhood; old age; years

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("age" is a kind of...):

time of life (a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state)

Meronyms (parts of "age"):

mid-sixties; sixties (the time of life between 60 and 70)

mid-seventies; seventies (the time of life between 70 and 80)

eighties; mid-eighties (the time of life between 80 and 90)

mid-nineties; nineties (the time of life between 90 and 100)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "age"):

dotage; second childhood; senility (mental infirmity as a consequence of old age; sometimes shown by foolish infatuations)

Derivation:

age (grow old or older)

age (make older)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A prolonged period of time

Example:

I haven't been there for years and years

Synonyms:

age; long time; years

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("age" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "age"):

year dot (as long ago as anyone can remember)

blue moon (a long time)

aeon; eon (an immeasurably long period of time)

month of Sundays (a time perceived as long)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An era of history having some distinctive feature

Example:

we live in a litigious age

Synonyms:

age; historic period

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("age" is a kind of...):

epoch; era (a period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "age"):

antiquity (the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe)

golden age (any period (sometimes imaginary) of great peace and prosperity and happiness)

Jazz Age (the 1920s in the United States characterized in the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald as a period of wealth, youthful exuberance, and carefree hedonism)

turn of the century (the period from about ten years before to ten years after a new century)

reign (the period during which a monarch is sovereign)

Instance hyponyms:

Restoration (the reign of Charles II in England; 1660-1685)

Reconstruction; Reconstruction Period (the period after the American Civil War when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union; 1865-1877)

New Deal (the historic period (1933-1940) in the United States during which President Franklin Roosevelt's economic policies were implemented)

Harlem Renaissance (a period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished)

Reign of Terror (the historic period (1793-94) during the French Revolution when thousands were executed)

Industrial Revolution; technological revolution (the transformation from an agricultural to an industrial nation)

Italian Renaissance (the early period when Italy was the center of the Renaissance)

Renaissance; Renascence (the period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the modern world; a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries)

Dark Ages; Middle Ages (the period of history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance)

Baroque; Baroque era; Baroque period (the historic period from about 1600 until 1750 when the baroque style of art, architecture, and music flourished in Europe)

Victorian age (a period in British history during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century; her character and moral standards restored the prestige of the British monarchy but gave the era a prudish reputation)

Elizabethan age (a period in British history during the reign of Elizabeth I in the 16th century; an age marked by literary achievement and domestic prosperity)

Depression; Great Depression (a period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment)

Age of Reason; Enlightenment (a movement in Europe from about 1650 until 1800 that advocated the use of reason and individualism instead of tradition and established doctrine)

Holonyms ("age" is a part of...):

history (the aggregate of past events)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grow old or older

Example:

Young men senesce

Synonyms:

age; get on; maturate; mature; senesce

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "age" is one way to...):

develop (grow, progress, unfold, or evolve through a process of evolution, natural growth, differentiation, or a conducive environment)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "age"):

turn (become officially one year older)

fossilise; fossilize (become mentally inflexible)

dote (be foolish or senile due to old age)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

age (a time of life (usually defined in years) at which some particular qualification or power arises)

age (a late time of life)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Begin to seem older; get older

Example:

The death of his wife caused him to age fast

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "age" is one way to...):

develop (grow, progress, unfold, or evolve through a process of evolution, natural growth, differentiation, or a conducive environment)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue age

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make older

Example:

The death of his child aged him tremendously

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "age" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Cause:

age; get on; maturate; mature; senesce (grow old or older)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Antonym:

rejuvenate (make younger or more youthful)

Derivation:

age (a late time of life)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A clinical trial conducted in Pakistan’s Punjab province found that vitamin D3 supplements added to regular treatment for malnutrition led to significant improvements in a group of 185 malnourished children aged 2‒58 months.

(Vitamin D3 boost helps treat child malnutrition, SciDev.Net)

SIDS is the sudden, unexplained, death of an infant under 1 year of age.

(Combined prenatal smoking and drinking greatly increases SIDS risk, National Institutes of Health)

A team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge studied data from the ADDITION-Cambridge trial, a prospective cohort study of 867 people with newly diagnosed diabetes aged 40 and 69 years.

(Type 2 diabetes remission possible with ‘achievable’ weight loss, University of Cambridge)

A "calendar" of the past has revolutionized the dating of geologic archives, identifying ages of geologic periods based on astronomy.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)

Many other factors also change the ground level, such as the movement of tectonic plates, volcanic activity, high- and low-pressure weather systems, and Earth's slow rebound from the last ice age.

(Sierras Lost Water Weight, Grew Taller During Drought, NASA)

They looked specifically at individuals aged 25 years and older.

(Poor Diet Kills More People Than Smoking, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Right now, the best-known risk factor for the illness is age.

(New Link Found between Alzheimer's & Gum Disease Bacteria, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The black hole was already billions of times the mass of our sun when our universe was only a tenth of its present age of 13.8 billion years.

(The Most Luminous Galaxy in Universe, NASA)

Since so few fossils have been discovered from that age, the sea monster is a spectacular find.

(Sea Monster Swam Oceans 170 Million Years Ago, Voanews)

These relationships held across participant’s age, sex, diabetes status, and use of aspirin or cholesterol-lowering medications.

(Omega-3s linked with lower risk of fatal heart attacks, NIH)