AGE


Meaning of AGE in English

INDEX:

1. how long someone has lived or something has existed

2. ways of saying how old someone is

3. to be almost a particular age

4. ways of saying how old a building, car, machine etc is

5. to be the same age as someone or something else

6. people who are the same age

RELATED WORDS

see also

↑ YOUNG

↑ OLD

↑ ADULT (2)

↑ BABY

↑ MODERN

↑ OLD-FASHIONED

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1. how long someone has lived or something has existed

▷ age /eɪdʒ/ [countable/uncountable noun]

the number of years that someone has lived or something has existed :

the age of somebody/something

▪ The average age of the students here is eighteen.

▪ The amount you pay for license tags and registration depends on the age of the vehicle.

somebody’s age

▪ I tried to guess her age but couldn’t.

▪ Their children’s ages range from twelve to seventeen.

be somebody’s age

be the same age as someone

▪ When I was your age I was already working.

of my age/her age etc

about the same age as me, her etc

▪ I’m surprised someone of your age didn’t know that.

at the age of 10/20 etc

written use this to say how old someone was when something happened

▪ Dewhurst died at the age of seventy-three.

over/under the age of

older or younger than

▪ Anyone over the age of fourteen has to pay the full fare.

be small/tall etc for your age

be small, tall etc compared with other people of the same age

▪ Jimmy’s very tall for his age.

▪ She’s in her seventies, but very fit for her age.

▷ how old /haʊ ˈəʊld/ [adjective phrase]

use this to ask or talk about the age of a person or thing :

▪ How old is Paul?

▪ I’m not sure how old the cat is -- three or four, I suppose.

2. ways of saying how old someone is

▷ be 5/10/35 etc /biː ˈfaɪv/ [verb phrase]

▪ Julie’s going to be thirty next month.

▪ When I was eighteen, I thought I knew everything.

▪ Luke is three and Marie is seven.

▷ be 5/10/35 etc years old /biː ˌfaɪv jɪəʳz ˈəʊld/ [verb phrase]

▪ Simone is nearly fifteen years old.

▪ My sister got married when she was thirty-eight years old.

▷ be 5/10/35 etc years of age /biː ˌfaɪv jɪəʳz əv ˈeɪdʒ/ [verb phrase] formal :

▪ He was tall, well-dressed and appeared to be about thirty-five years of age.

▪ Elephants do not become sexually active until they are fifteen to eighteen years of age.

▷ aged 5/10/35 etc /eɪdʒd ˈfaɪv/ [adjective phrase]

used especially in written descriptions :

▪ The child, aged ten, was last seen in a park on Bishop Street.

▪ A recent survey of youths aged thirteen to eighteen shows that twelve percent are smoking regularly.

▪ Females aged eighteen to thirty-four have an increased risk of contracting the disease.

▷ 5-year-old/10-year-old etc /ˈfaɪv jɪər ˌəʊld/ [adjective only before noun] aged 5/10/35 etc

used especially in written descriptions :

▪ His ninety-five-year-old great-grandfather still rides his bike every day.

▪ She has to pick up her twelve-year-old son from school at 3:30.

▪ Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Parker will be the soloist in tonight’s concert.

5/10/35-year-old [countable noun]

▪ The competition was won by a seventeen-year-old from Vestavia High School.

▷ of 5/10/35 etc /əv ˈfaɪv/ [adjective phrase]

use this especially to say what someone who is a particular age can do :

▪ If a man of fifty-five loses his job, he’ll never get another.

▪ It’s so simple, a child of four could use it.

▷ in your teens/20s/thirties/40s etc /ɪn jɔːʳ ˈtiːnz/

use this to give a general idea of how old someone is :

▪ He was tall, with brown hair and dark eyes - I’d say he was in his forties.

early twenties/30s etc

▪ In my early twenties, I applied for my first job as a teacher.

mid-twenties/30s etc

▪ She’s retired, but she’s only in her mid-50s.

late twenties/30s etc

▪ A lot of women in their late twenties start thinking about having a family.

▷ have turned 20/30 etc /həv ˌtɜːʳnd ˈtwenti/ [verb phrase]

to have recently become 20, 30 etc :

▪ McClelland recently turned forty.

▷ twenty-/thirty-/forty-something /ˈtwenti ˌsʌmθɪŋ/ [adjective only before noun] informal

between the ages of 20 and 29, 30 and 39 etc :

▪ a forty-something couple from Orlando

3. to be almost a particular age

▷ be getting on for /biː ˌgetɪŋ ˈɒn fɔːʳ/ [verb phrase] British

used to say that someone is nearly a particular age :

▪ Old Willis must be getting on for sixty-five.

▪ The Queen was getting on for eighty and only the elderly could remember her coronation.

▷ be pushing /biː ˈpʊʃɪŋ/ [verb phrase]

be pushing 40/50/65 etc

to be almost a particular age, especially when this is quite old or be doing a particular activity :

▪ When you’re pushing seventy it’s not surprising when you start forgetting things.

▪ What astonishes me is the ease with which this man, pushing seventy-five, can play his trumpet for hours at a time.

4. ways of saying how old a building, car, machine etc is

▷ be 5/50/100 etc years old /biː ˌfaɪv jɪəʳz ˈəʊld/ [verb phrase]

▪ Their home is over 100 years old.

▪ The fossils are over 100 million years old.

▪ The pyramids were already 2000 years old when the Greek historian Herodotus visited them.

▷ 5-year-old/100-year-old etc /ˈfaɪv jɪər ˌəʊld/ [adjective phrase only before noun]

used especially in written descriptions :

▪ A 500-year-old church in Leipzig is being threatened with demolition.

▪ a 1500-year-old Latin manuscript

5. to be the same age as someone or something else

▷ the same age /ðə ˌseɪm ˈeɪdʒ/ [noun phrase]

be the same age

▪ Cliff and Jeremy are the same age.

be the same age as

▪ Cleo is the same age as me.

of the same age

the same age as each other

▪ Blood samples were taken from a group of patients of the same age.

6. people who are the same age

▷ generation /ˌdʒenəˈreɪʃ ə n/ [countable noun usually singular]

all the people in a society who are about the same age :

somebody’s generation

▪ People of his generation often have a hard time with computers.

▪ Many people consider her among the best writers of her generation.

generation-gap

large differences in attitude between different generations

▪ There’s still a pretty wide generation-gap in German society.

▷ age group /ˈeɪdʒ gruːp/ [countable noun]

all the people who are between two particular ages, considered as a group :

▪ Pregnant women in the 40-45 age group are more likely to suffer complications.

▪ The vacations are designed for the 20-30 age group.

▷ the under-5s/11s/25s etc /ði ˌʌndəʳ ˈfaɪvz/ [plural noun] British

a group of people, especially children or young people, who are all below a certain age - used especially in education or sport :

▪ Sally teaches the under-5s.

▪ He is one of the best of the under-18s in his football club.

▷ the over-30s/40s/50s etc /ði ˌəʊvəʳ ˈθɜːʳtiz/ [plural noun] British

a group of people, but not usually children or young people, who are all above a certain age - used especially to talk about groups of middle-aged or old people :

▪ Many agencies provide special vacations for the over-50s.

▪ The tennis club has a section for the over-40s.

▷ twenty-/thirty-/forty-something /ˈtwenti ˌsʌmθɪŋ/ [countable noun] informal

someone between the ages of 20 and 29, 30 and 39 etc :

▪ Howard’s book is an entertaining book filled with tips on money management for twenty- and 30-somethings.

▪ The show is about a group of twenty-somethings living in New York City.

▷ peer group/peers /ˈpɪəʳ gruːp, pɪəʳz/ []

a group of people who are the same age, especially children or young people - use this to talk about how people of the same age influence and relate to each other :

▪ By the age of about 10, children will be much more interested in the approval of their peer group than that of their parents or teachers.

▪ She learned to read late, and by the age of 13 was way behind her peers in almost every aspect of school work.

peer group pressure

the strong influence of a peer group

▪ Kids should be taught to resist peer group pressure to become sexually active too early.

Longman Activator English vocab.      Английский словарь Longman активатор .