eighty-five
HighFormal, neutral, informal (all registers)
Definition
Meaning
The cardinal number equivalent to the sum of eighty and five; 85.
Used to indicate quantity, age, measurement (e.g., temperature), percentage, or as an identifying label (e.g., a highway number or product model).
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
Functions primarily as a noun or a determiner (e.g., 'eighty-five people'). It is a compound numeral following the standard English pattern for numbers between 21-99.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
No significant lexical differences. Potential minor variation in connected speech or regional pronunciation patterns (e.g., the 't' in 'eighty' may be flapped more commonly in American English).
Connotations
None specific to either variety.
Frequency
Equally common and used identically in all contexts in both varieties.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[eighty-five] + [plural countable noun] (eighty-five students)[be] + [eighty-five] (He is eighty-five.)[verb] + [eighty-five] + [object] (score eighty-five points)Vocabulary
Synonyms
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “eighty-five-cent tour (US, a cheap, quick tour)”
- “do an eighty-five (US slang, drive at 85 mph)”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
"The project came in at eighty-five percent of the budget."
Academic
"The sample size was eighty-five participants."
Everyday
"My grandmother is eighty-five years young."
Technical
"Set the parameter to a value of eighty-five."
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- To eighty-five something is not a standard verb.
American English
- To eighty-five something is not a standard verb.
adverb
British English
- Not used as a standard adverb.
American English
- Not used as a standard adverb.
adjective
British English
- The eighty-five-page report was comprehensive.
- She received an eighty-five per cent score.
American English
- The eighty-five-page report was comprehensive.
- She received an eighty-five percent score.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- I have eighty-five pencils.
- My flat is number eighty-five.
- The temperature reached eighty-five degrees today.
- Approximately eighty-five people attended the meeting.
- The new model promises an eighty-five percent efficiency rate.
- He was doing eighty-five on the motorway when he was stopped.
- The legislation passed with a decisive margin of eighty-five votes.
- Her analysis attributed eighty-five percent of the variance to the first factor.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think of 'Ate tea (eighty) and then ate five more cakes' for the sequence 80 + 5.
Conceptual Metaphor
QUANTITY IS A CONTAINER / NUMBER LINE (eighty-five is a specific point/amount on a scale).
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Direct word order in noun phrases: 'eighty-five pages' (восемьдесят пять страниц), not 'pages eighty-five'.
- Agreement with plural nouns after compound numerals like eighty-five follows English rules (plural noun), not Russian (genitive singular).
Common Mistakes
- Writing as one word ('eightyfive') or hyphenated incorrectly ('eighty five'). Correct form is hyphenated: eighty-five.
- Using singular noun after the number (e.g., 'eighty-five page').
Practice
Quiz
Which of the following is the correct written form for the number after eighty-four?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine are typically hyphenated when written out.
No, the ordinal form is 'eighty-fifth' (85th).
The main difference is the pronunciation of the 't' in 'eighty'. In British English it is a clear /t/, while in American English it often becomes a flapped /t̬/, sounding closer to a 'd'.
The numeral form is 85.