age*/*/*/

[eɪdʒ] noun I

1) [C/U] the number of years that someone has lived

The average age of the delegates was over 60.[/ex]

At the age of 10, I went to live with my aunt.[/ex]

The film is designed to appeal to people of all ages.[/ex]

Darren's very tall for his age.[/ex]

2) [C/U] the number of years that something has existed

The value of the furniture depends on its age and condition.[/ex]

It's hard to guess the age of the object.[/ex]

3) [C/U] the time of life when it is possible, legal, or typical for people to do something

young people who have reached voting age[/ex]

4) [U] the state of being old or of becoming old

His face is starting to show signs of age.[/ex]

Good wines improve with age.[/ex]

5) [C] a period of history

We live in a materialistic age.[/ex]

It was an age of great scientific progress.[/ex]

6) ages

[plural] informal a long time

She's lived here for ages.[/ex]

He took ages to answer the phone.[/ex]

We spent ages trying to print this out.[/ex]

For the first time in ages, we sat down and talked.[/ex]

After what seemed like ages, the doctor came back.[/ex]

•

come of age — to reach the age when you are legally an adult[/ex]

Talking or writing about someone's age asking about age ■ how old used for asking someone their age ■ what age used for talking about someone's age at a time in the past or future. Say ‘How old are you?', not ‘What age are you?', when you are asking someone their age saying how old someone is ■ be 2/10/40 etc (years old) the most usual way of saying how old someone is ■ be 2/9/18 months old used for saying how old a baby or young child is ■ aged 2/10/40 etc used in writing, for example in newspapers, for saying how old someone is ■ a 2-/10-/40-year-old someone who is 2/10/40 years old ■ a 2-year-old child/a 10-year-old girl/a 40-year-old man used for saying that someone is 2/10/40 years old when you are not saying exactly how old someone is ■ in your teens/twenties/thirties etc used for saying that someone is aged between 13–19, 20–29, 30–39 etc ■ twenty-something/thirty-something etc used as an adjective or noun for talking about someone aged between 20–29, 30–39 etc ■ teenage aged between 13 and 19 ■ teenager someone aged between 13 and 19 ■ middle-aged no longer young, but not yet old, usually used for someone aged between 40 and 60 II

verb [I/T]

age [eɪdʒ]

to become older or look older, or to make someone do this

Her father had aged a lot since she had last seen him.[/ex]