AGE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does age mean? 

• AGE (noun)
  The noun AGE has 5 senses:

1. how long something has existed

2. an era of history having some distinctive feature

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

4. a prolonged period of time

5. a late time of life

  Familiarity information: AGE used as a noun is common.

• AGE (verb)
  The verb AGE has 3 senses:

1. begin to seem older; get older

2. grow old or older

3. make older

  Familiarity information: AGE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

How long something has existed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

it was replaced because of its age

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

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

Attribute:

mature (having reached full natural growth or development)

immature (not yet mature)

old (of long duration; not new)

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

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

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

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

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)

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

An era of history having some distinctive feature

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

age; historic period

Context example:

we live in a litigious age

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)

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

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)

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)

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

age; eld

Context example:

tall for his eld

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"):

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)

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

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 4

Meaning:

A prolonged period of time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

age; long time; years

Context example:

I haven't been there for years and years

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"):

month of Sundays (a time perceived as long)

aeon; eon (an immeasurably long period of time)

blue moon (a long time)

year dot (as long ago as anyone can remember)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A late time of life

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

age; eld; geezerhood; old age; years

Context example:

on the brink of geezerhood

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)

• AGE (verb)

Conjugation:

Sense 1

Meaning:

Begin to seem older; get older

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The death of his wife caused him to age fast

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 2

Meaning:

Grow old or older

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

age; get on; maturate; mature; senesce

Context example:

Young men senesce

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 3

Meaning:

Make older

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The death of his child aged him tremendously

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)

 Context examples 

I skipped the eighth grade in a special-progress class, so at age 16, I was getting better, and I entered New York University and completed my business degree there, graduating at 20.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

At ninety, they lose their teeth and hair; they have at that age no distinction of taste, but eat and drink whatever they can get, without relish or appetite.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Martin and Cheese- Face were two savages, of the stone age, of the squatting place and the tree refuge.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The aged ecclesiastic had turned his face towards me.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

How dark it was inside the wolf; and after that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The World Health Organization reports more than 90 percent, or nearly 2 billion children under the age of 15, breathe toxic air every day.

(WAir Pollution a Health Risk for Children, Lisa Schlein/VOA)

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine enrolled 48 participants aged 4 to 15 years with confirmed allergy to multiple foods, including milk, egg, wheat, soy, sesame seeds, peanut or tree nuts.

(Omalizumab improves efficacy of oral immunotherapy for multiple food allergies, National Institutes of Health)

Older age, male gender, cirrhosis and diabetes also were independently associated with an increased risk, but nucleos(t)ide analogue or statin use was associated with a decreased risk.

(An Aspirin A Day Keep Liver Cancer Away, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and disabilities among drivers aged 15 to 20 years.

(Reaching for objects while driving may raise teen crash risk nearly sevenfold, National Institutes of Health)