View synonyms for eight

eight

[ eyt ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a cardinal number, seven plus one.
a symbol for this number, as 8 or VIII.
a set of this many persons or things, as the crew of an eight-oared racing shell.
a playing card the face of which bears eight pips.
Informal.
1. an automobile powered by an eight-cylinder engine.
2. an eight-cylinder engine.

adjective

amounting to eight in number.

eight

/ eɪt /

noun

the cardinal number that is the sum of one and seven and the product of two and four See also number
a numeral, 8, VIII, etc, representing this number
music the numeral 8 used as the lower figure in a time signature to indicate that the beat is measured in quavers
the amount or quantity that is one greater than seven
something representing, represented by, or consisting of eight units, such as a playing card with eight symbols on it
rowing
1. a racing shell propelled by eight oarsmen
2. the crew of such a shell
Also calledeight o'clock eight hours after noon or midnight
have one over the eight slang.
to be drunk
See figure of eight

determiner

1. amounting to eight
2. ( as pronoun )
  I could only find eight

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Word History and Origins

Origin of eight¹

before 1000; Middle English eighte, Old English ( e ) ahta; cognate with Dutch acht, Old Saxon, Old High German ahto ( German acht ), Old Norse ātta, Gothic ahtau, Latin octō, Greek oktṓ, Old Irish ocht, Welsh wyth, Breton eiz, Tocharian B okt, Lithuanian aštuonì, Albanian tetë, Armenian uth, Persian hasht, Sanskrit aṣṭáu; apparently an old dual in form, but not clear of what

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Word History and Origins

Origin of eight¹

Old English eahta; related to Old High German ahto, Old Norse ātta, Old Irish ocht, Latin octō, Greek okto, Sanskrit astau

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Idioms and Phrases

see behind the eight ball .

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Example Sentences

The Trump administration has designated eight Latin American criminal cartels as ‘foreign terrorist organizations.’

From Los Angeles Times

She said she looked for apartments but couldn’t get him to sign off on any of them, so she wound up living for eight months in a hotel that he paid for.

From Los Angeles Times

Nor did they deter Russia from carrying out its full-scale invasion of Ukraine eight years later.

From BBC

Wainwright makes his second start of the campaign after starting at number eight in the opening 43-0 defeat by France in Paris.

From BBC

A driver rammed his vehicle into a CarMax showroom on Saturday, injuring eight people.

From Los Angeles Times

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How Do You Spell 8?

Spelling tips for 8

The word eight (8) is hard to spell because it is not spelled the way it sounds [ eyt ]. There are a number of silent letters.

How to spell eight: The easiest way to remember how to spell eight is with the classic mnemonic device: “I before E, except after C, except when it’s pronounced like a long A, as in neighbor and weigh.” The collection of letters eigh often makes a long A sound. To this, you simply add the t at the end: eight.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Eiger eightball

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