eight

From English eight.

• IPA^(key): [ˈei̯t][1]

eight

1. (international standards) NATO & ICAO radiotelephony clear code (spelling-alphabet name) for the digit 8.

   Synonym: oktoeight (ITU/IMO)

From Middle English eighte, aught, eahte, ahte, from Old English eahta, from Proto-West Germanic *ahtō, from Proto-Germanic *ahtōu, from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw.

Cognate with Scots aucht (“eight”), West Frisian acht (“eight”), Dutch acht (“eight”), Low German acht (“eight”), German acht (“eight”), Norwegian åtte (“eight”), Swedish åtta (“eight”), Icelandic átta (“eight”), Latin octo (“eight”), Ancient Greek ὀκτώ (oktṓ), Irish ocht (“eight”).

• aught (Scotland, archaic, rare)
• Arabic numerals: 8
• Roman numerals: VIII

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: āt, IPA^(key): /eɪt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt
• Homophones: ait (general), ate, eyot (one pronunciation)

eight

1. A numerical value equal to 8; the number occurring after seven and before nine.
   • 2009, Stuart Heritage, Hecklerspray, Friday the 22nd of May in 2009 at 1 o’clock p.m., “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”

     Jon & Kate Plus 8 is a show based on two facts: 1) Jon and Kate Gosselin have eight children, and 2) the word ‘Kate’ rhymes with the word ‘eight’. One suspects that if Kate were ever to have another child, a shady network executive would urge her to put it in a binbag with a brick and drop it down a well. But this is just a horrifying tangent.

2. Describing a group or set with eight elements.

   He works eight hours a day.

• eighth

• Sranan Tongo: aiti

• Table of cardinal numbers 0 to 9 in various languages

eight (plural eights)

1. The digit/figure 8.
2. (playing cards) Any of the four cards in a normal deck with the value eight.
3. (nautical) A light, narrow rowing boat, especially one used in competitive rowing, steered by a cox, in which eight rowers each have two oars.
4. (rowing, especially in plural) A race in which such craft participate.
5. (rowing) The eight people who crew a rowing-boat.
6. Eight o'clock.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter I, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book IV (Terror):

     About eight on the Saturday morning, she purchases a large sheath-knife in the Palais Royal [...]

   • 1905, Guy Newell Boothby, “The Treasure of Sacramento Nick”, in A Crime of the Under-Seas‎, London: Ward Lock & Co Limited, →OCLC, →OL:

     Sharp at eight we were waiting on the wharf where the Messagerie boats lie, and wondering what the deuce was going to happen.

   • 1997 February 1 [1981 April 12], John Dunning, Deadline, New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 263:

     Miranda showed him in at a quarter to eight, accompanied by a pretty young woman she introduced as Erin d'Angelo.

• section 8

Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text)
ace	deuce, two	three	four	five	six	seven
eight	nine	ten	jack, knave	queen	king	joker

eight (not comparable)

1. Obsolete spelling of eighth

See ait.

eight (plural eights)

1. Alternative spelling of ait (island in a river)[2]

• Tighe

eight

1. Alternative form of eighte

Spelling was influenced by English eight (/eɪt/).

eight

1. Alternative form of at (“to eat”)

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 38