sixth

[siksth] /sɪksθ/

adjective

next after the fifth; being the ordinal number for six.

being one of six equal parts.

noun

a sixth part, especially of one (1/6).

the sixth member of a series.

Music.

a tone on the sixth degree from a given tone (counted as a first).
the interval between such tones.
the harmonic combination of such tones.

adverb

in the sixth place; sixthly.

Origin

before 900; six + -th²; replacing sixt, Middle English sixte, Old English sixta

Related forms

sixthly, adverb

Examples from the web for sixth

sixth period was lively and edgy, but sometimes interesting.
Today, according to many biologists, we're in the midst of a sixth great extinction.
Only about a sixth of the world's nations practise birthright citizenship.
About the sixth week the two parts of the pancreas meet and fuse and a communication is established between their ducts.
They remain united until about the end of the sixth month.
The fifth and sixth cervical unite soon after their exit from the intervertebral foramina to form a trunk.
After the sixth month the air-sacs begin to make their appearance on the infundibula in the form of minute pouches.
Everyone had been plunked down there on the sixth day and that was that-the past was a circle, and the future would be, too.
It's difficult to say when the current extinction event-sometimes called the sixth extinction- began.
He wrote five travel diaries and a sixth, shorter work.

British Dictionary definitions for sixth

sixth

/sɪksθ/

adjective

(usually prenominal)

coming after the fifth and before the seventh in numbering or counting order, position, time, etc; being the ordinal number of six: often written 6th
(as noun): the sixth to go

noun

one of six equal or nearly equal parts of an object, quantity, measurement, etc
(as modifier): a sixth part

the fraction equal to one divided by six (1/6)

(music)

the interval between one note and another note six notes away from it counting inclusively along the diatonic scale
one of two notes constituting such an interval in relation to the other See also major (sense 14), minor (sense 4), interval (sense 5)
short for sixth chord

adverb

Also sixthly. after the fifth person, position, etc

sentence connector

Also sixthly. as the sixth point: linking what follows to the previous statements

Word Origin and History for sixth

adj.

1520s, replacing Middle English sixte (c.1200), from Old English syxte, from siex (see six). Cf. Old Frisian sexta, Middle Dutch seste, Old High German sehsto, German sechste, Gothic saihsta. With ending conformed to -th (1). Related: Sixthly. The noun meaning "a sixth part" is from 1550s. As a music tone, from 1590s. Sixth sense "supernatural perception of objects" is attested from 1712; earlier it meant "titillation, the sense that apprehends sexual pleasure" (1690s, from Scaliger).

Then said Peter, That is false; for there is a sixth Sense, that of Prescience : for the other five Senses are capable only of Knowledg ; but the Sixth of Foreknowledg ; which Sense the Prophets had. [William Whitson, "Primitive Christianity Reviv'd," vol. V, London, 1712]