What does fifth mean?
Fifth is the ordinal form of five, marking the position that comes after fourth in any ordered sequence — the fifth day of the month, the fifth attempt, the fifth runner across the finish line. As a noun it also names one of five equal divisions of a whole, as in 'about a fifth of respondents agreed', and it appears in specialized contexts such as music, where a fifth is a harmonic interval spanning five staff positions. The word carries no particular connotation beyond its literal meaning, though in American culture it is famously fixed in the phrase 'to take the Fifth', referring to the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination. Descended from Old English through Germanic roots that trace back ultimately to the same Indo-European source underlying Greek penta- and Latin quinque-, fifth connects everyday counting to a deep family of words including pentagon and quintet.
Coming next after the fourth in order; constituting the ordinal number five in a sequence.
"Their fifth album topped the charts worldwide."
Ordinals like fifth typically take the definite article when identifying a specific item in a sequence.
One of five equal parts of a whole; also, the member of a series occupying the fifth position, or (in music) an interval of five diatonic degrees.
"He drank a fifth of whiskey over the weekend."
In American usage, 'a fifth' can denote a standard bottle of liquor (historically one-fifth of a gallon).
Used chiefly in fractional senses: two fifths, three fifths of a whole.
"Three fifths of the committee voted in favor of the proposal."
In America you can literally 'take the Fifth' — refusing to answer questions under oath, thanks to the Fifth Amendment — and Beethoven's famous four-note motif made 'the Fifth' the most recognizable symphony on Earth.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fifth
Fifth descends from the Old English 'fīfta', formed on 'fīf' (five) with the ordinal suffix '-ta'. It is a genuinely Germanic word, with close cognates in German ('fünfte') and Dutch ('vijfde'). More distantly, its root reaches back to the Proto-Indo-European numeral *penkwe ('five'), which also produced the Greek 'pente-' and Latin 'quinque' — making fifth etymologically kin to words like pentagon, quintet, and quintessence.
Related word forms
How fifth is actually used
Neutral register across speech and writing. In American English, 'to take (or plead) the Fifth' is a well-established idiomatic reference to invoking the constitutional right against self-incrimination, often used figuratively in everyday speech to mean declining to answer. The musical sense ('a fifth' as an interval) is technical vocabulary in music theory.
Easily confused with fifth
Fourth is the ordinal for position four (after third), while fifth marks position five (after fourth); learners sometimes mix up the sequence or spellings of these ordinals.