Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The cardinal number equal to 10 + 1.
  • noun The 11th in a set or sequence.
  • noun Something with 11 parts or members, especially a football team.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • One more than ten: a cardinal numeral beginning the second decade: as, eleven men.
  • noun The number which is the sum of ten and one.
  • noun A symbol representing eleven units, as 11, or XI., or xi.
  • noun A team or side in cricket or foot-ball: so called because regularly consisting of eleven players: as, the Philadelphia eleven; there were two strong elevens matched.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Ten and one added.
  • noun The sum of ten and one; eleven units or objects.
  • noun A symbol representing eleven units, as 11 or xi.
  • noun (Cricket & American Football) The eleven men selected to play on one side in a match, as the representatives of a club or a locality.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The cardinal number occurring after ten and before twelve. Represented as 11 in Arabic digits.
  • noun cricket A cricket team of eleven players.
  • noun soccer A football team of eleven players.
  • noun Internet, slang, sarcastic Used instead of ! to amplify an exclamation, imitating n00bs who forget to press the shift key while typing exclamation points.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the cardinal number that is the sum of ten and one
  • adjective being one more than ten
  • noun a team that plays football

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English elleven, from Old English endleofan; see oi-no- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English endleofan; from Proto-Germanic *ainalif (“one left”), a compound of *ainaz and *lif-. Compare West Frisian alve, Dutch elf, German elf, Danish elleve.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I was wondering today how "eleven" came from "one"; certainly not as obvious as "twelve" from "two". The etymologies here didn't help out too much.

    Also, first and second. ???

    December 7, 2009

  • Good question, Milos. I'd like to know, too.

    Right now, all I know is that ELEVEN PLUS TWO is an anagram of TWELVE PLUS ONE.

    December 7, 2009

  • 'specially odd as it's odd. Not even even.

    December 7, 2009

  • "eleven" in Hungarian means: lively

    August 1, 2012