dozen

dozen

English

Etymology

From Middle English dozen, dozein, doseyne, from Old French dozaine (“a group of twelve”) (Modern French douzaine), from doze (“twelve”) + -aine (“-ish”), from Latin duodecim (“twelve”) (from duo (“two”) + decem (“ten”)) + -ana (“-ish”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʌzən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌzən

Noun

dozen (plural dozens or dozen)

1. A set of twelve.

   Can I have a dozen eggs, please?

   I ordered two dozen doughnuts.

   There shouldn't be more than two dozen Christmas cards left to write.

   Pack the shirts in dozens, please.

2. (as plural only, always followed by of) A large, unspecified number of, comfortably estimated in small multiples of twelve, thus generally implied to be significantly more than ten or twelve, but less than perhaps one or two hundred; many.

   There must have been dozens of examples just on the first page.

   There were dozens and dozens of applicants before the job was posted.

   • 2012 March 1, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 128:

     Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are diamond, ruby and sapphire, emerald and other gem forms of the mineral beryl, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, tsavorite, topaz and jade.

3. (metallurgy) An old English measure of ore containing 12 hundredweight.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 139

     The dozen as a measure for iron ore remained almost completely constant at 12 cwts. during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

4. (bingo) twelve

Abbreviations

• doz

Synonyms

• (followed by of: a large number of): a great deal of, a lot of, heaps of, hundreds of, loads of, lots of, many, millions of, scores of, scads of, thousands of

Antonyms

• (followed by of: a large number of): few

Derived terms

• baker's dozen
• banker's dozen
• Botany Bay dozen
• cheaper by the dozen
• daily dozen
• decimal dozen
• devil's dozen
• dime a dozen
• double dozen
• dozenal
• dozens offer
• dozenth
• half a dozen
• half-dozen
• half dozen
• long dozen
• nineteen to the dozen
• short dozen
• six of one, half (a) dozen of the other
• ten to the dozen
• thirteen to the dozen
• twenty to the dozen
• two-dozen

 

Descendants

• ⇒ Chinese: 打 (dá)
  • → Vietnamese: tá
• → Hindi: दर्जन (darjan)
• → Fiji Hindi: darjan
• ⇒ Japanese: ダース (dāsu)
  • → Korean: 다스 (daseu)
• Manx: dussan
• Maori: taihana
• Swahili: dazeni
• Welsh: dwsin

Translations

twelve

Afrikaans: dosyn Albanian: duzinë (sq) Arabic: دَزِّينَة‎ f (dazzīna), دَسْتَة‎ f (dasta) Egyptian Arabic: درزن‎ m (darzan), دستة‎ f (dasta) Gulf Arabic: درزن‎ (dɐrzɐn) Aragonese: ducena Armenian: դյուժին (hy) (dyužin) Belarusian: ту́зін m (túzin) Bulgarian: ду́зина (bg) f (dúzina) Burmese: ဒါဇင် (my) (dajang) Catalan: dotzena (ca) f Chinese: Cantonese: 打 (daa1) Mandarin: 打 (zh) (dá) Min Nan: 打 (táⁿ) Czech: tucet (cs) m Danish: dusin (da) n, tylvt c Dutch: dozijn (nl) n Esperanto: dekduo Estonian: tosin Faroese: tylft f Fiji Hindi: darjan (hif) Finnish: tusina (fi), kymmenisen (fi) (about ten) French: douzaine (fr) f Galician: ducia (gl) f German: Dutzend (de) n Greek: ντουζίνα (el) f (douzína) Ancient: δωδεκάς f (dōdekás) Haitian Creole: douzèn Hebrew: תְּרֵיסָר‎ (he) (t'resár) Hindi: दर्जन (hi) f (darjan) Hungarian: tucat (hu) Icelandic: tylft f, dúsin n, dúsín f Ido: dek-e-du (io), dekeduo (io) Indonesian: lusin (id) Irish: dosaen m Italian: dozzina (it) f Japanese: ダース (dāsu) Khmer: ឡូ (km) (lou) Korean: 다스 (ko) (daseu) Lao: please add this translation if you can Latvian: ducis m Macedonian: дузина f (duzina) Malayalam: ഡസൻ (ml) (ḍasaṉ) (borrowed from English) Manx: dussan m Maori: taihana Norwegian: Bokmål: dusin (no) n, tylft f Nynorsk: dusin n, tylft f Occitan: dotzena (oc) f Old Norse: tylft f Persian: دوجین‎ (fa) (dojin) Polish: tuzin (pl) m Portuguese: dúzia (pt) f Romanian: duzină (ro) f Russian: дю́жина (ru) f (djúžina) Scottish Gaelic: dusan m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: туце n, туцет m Roman: tuce (sh) n, tucet m Slovak: tucet m Slovene: ducat (sl) m Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: dwanastk m, ducent m Spanish: docena (es) f Swahili: dazani (sw) Swedish: dussin (sv) n, tolft (sv) c Thai: โหล (th) (lǒo) Turkish: düzine (tr) Ukrainian: дю́жина f (djúžyna) Urdu: درجن‎ f (darjan) Vietnamese: tá (vi) Volapük: degtelat (vo) Walloon: dozinne (wa) f Welsh: dwsin (cy) m Yiddish: טוץ‎ m or n (tuts)

dozens: a large number

Afrikaans: dosyne Bulgarian: десетки (bg) pl (desetki) Dutch: tientallen (nl) pl Esperanto: dekoj Finnish: kymmeniä (fi), satoja (fi) (of: + partitive plural), tusinoittain (fi) French: dizaine (fr) German: Dutzende (of: von) Italian: centinaia (it), migliaia (it) (of: di) Occitan: dotzenat (oc) m Polish: tuziny, dziesiątki, kilkadziesiąt (pl) (usually less than 100): Russian: деся́тки (ru) m pl (desjátki), мно́жество (ru) n (mnóžestvo), у́йма (ru) f (újma) (colloquial) Spanish: decenas (es) f pl Walloon: dijhinnes f pl

See also

• gross

Anagrams

• Donze, zendo, zoned

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oːzən

Noun

dozen

1. Plural form of doos

Anagrams

• zoden, zonde

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Scots

Etymology

Related to doze.

Verb

dozen

1. (transitive) To stupefy.
2. (intransitive) To become stupefied.