Sixteenths

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A unit of measurement equal to one sixteenth of a whole, often used in contexts involving fractions or divisions of quantity
2. A term denoting the sixteenth part of an inch, widely utilized in carpentry and construction
3. A fraction representing a division into sixteen equal parts, commonly applied in musical notation or cooking measurements

Etymology: "Sixteenths" is the plural of "sixteenth," which is a noun meaning one of sixteen equal parts. It is an inflected form, so it inherits its history from the singular, and the singular is built in a plain, transparent way: it combines "sixteen" with the ordinal suffix "-th," the same ending that gives "fifth," "sixth," and "tenth." The base "sixteen" descends from Old English "sixtēne," with the "-teen" element meaning "ten" added to "six," while the ordinal form "sixtēoþa" was formed by attaching the "-th" suffix to that numeral. Over the Middle English period the word took forms such as "sixtenthe" and "sixtethe," and the modern spelling settled from there.

Synonyms: one-sixteenth, sixteenth part