eighty-one
A1Neutral - used in all registers from formal to informal.
Definition
Meaning
The cardinal number equal to 81, being one more than eighty.
Used to denote the specific quantity 81, the year 1981, an age of 81 years, or item number 81 in a sequence.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
A compound numeral formed by combining a multiple of ten ('eighty') and a unit ('one'), connected with a hyphen.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
No significant differences in form or core meaning. Potential minor variation in phrasing large numbers (e.g., BrE sometimes uses 'and' after 'hundred' in numbers like 'one hundred and eighty-one').
Connotations
Neutral in both varieties. May culturally reference the year 1981 or specific sports scores (e.g., a basketball player scoring 81 points).
Frequency
Equally frequent in both dialects as a fundamental numeral.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[Numeral] + [Noun] (eighty-one participants)[Be/Verb] + [Numeral] (He is eighty-one.)Vocabulary
Synonyms
Neutral
Weak
Usage
Context Usage
Business
'The proposal was approved by eighty-one percent of the shareholders.'
Academic
'The study sampled eighty-one participants across three cohorts.'
Everyday
'My grandmother just celebrated her eighty-first birthday.'
Technical
'The atomic number of thallium is eighty-one.'
Examples
By Part of Speech
adjective
British English
- She bought eighty-one litres of paint for the community project.
- We need eighty-one signatures to table the motion.
American English
- She bought eighty-one gallons of paint for the community project.
- We need eighty-one signatures to table the motion.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- My flat is number eighty-one.
- I have eighty-one pounds in my pocket.
- Eighty-one people attended the town hall meeting last night.
- The recipe calls for eighty-one grams of sugar.
- The legislation passed with a narrow margin of eighty-one votes to seventy.
- After eighty-one years of research, they finally made a breakthrough.
- The poet's seminal work, published in nineteen eighty-one, redefined the genre.
- The algorithm's efficiency decreased by eighty-one percent under peak load conditions.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think of the famous 'Route 66' but with an '8' and a '1': you take '8'-ty and drive it alongside '1'.
Conceptual Metaphor
QUANTITY IS A POINT ON A SCALE (e.g., 'just past eighty', 'approaching ninety').
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Direct translation 'восемьдесят один' is correct. No trap, but note the hyphen in English, which is not used in Russian.
- In dates, English uses cardinal numbers ('nineteen eighty-one'), whereas Russian uses the genitive case for the year.
Common Mistakes
- Writing as one word 'eightyone' or two words 'eighty one' instead of the hyphenated form.
- Mispronouncing by placing equal stress on both syllables; primary stress is usually on 'one'.
Practice
Quiz
How is the number 81 typically written in words?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine are hyphenated when written as words.
In American English, it is /ˌeɪ.t̬i ˈwʌn/, with a flapped 't' sound in 'eighty' and stress on 'one'.
Yes, it functions as a numeral adjective when it modifies a noun, e.g., 'eighty-one candles'.
The most common mistake is omitting the hyphen and writing it as two separate words.