dozen

CEFRA2

/ˈdʌzən/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A group of twelve people or things.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A large, unspecified number of, comfortably estimated in small multiples of twelve, thus generally implied to be significantly more than ten or twelve, but less than perhaps one or two hundred; many.

Examples

  • Each chapter in the textbook is followed by about a dozen comprehension questions.

  • There are no fewer than a dozen bedrooms in this mansion.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An old English measure of ore containing 12 hundredweight.

  2. A set of twelve.

  3. The number twelve.

More examples

In context

  • We bought the goods at $3 a dozen.

  • Can I have a dozen eggs, please?

  • There are hundreds of people from each continent in the convention but only a few dozen came from Africa.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She carefully counted out a blank of eggs, making sure there were exactly twelve.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English dozen, dozein, doseyne, from Old French dozaine (“a group of twelve”) (Modern French douzaine), from doze (“twelve”) + -aine (“-ish”), from Latin duodecim (“twelve”) (from duo (“two”) + decem (“ten”)) + -ana (“-ish”).