five-and-dime

noun

ˌfīv-ən-ˈdīm 

variants or less commonly five-and-ten

ˌfīv-ən-ˈten 

plural five-and-dimes also five-and-tens

: a retail store that carries a variety of chiefly inexpensive merchandise

When I was a little girl you could still buy things at the five-and-dime.

—Nikki Giovanni

But most five-and-dimes faded away, done in by competition from big box stores, or failure to adapt to changing tastes quickly enough.

—Carl Nolte

After the grocery store came the five-and-ten, a rambling, comfortable hodgepodge of unrelated items and scents.

—Lee Ebler

Examples of five-and-dime in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Rex will discuss how Walton went from running a five-and-dime store in Newport, Arkansas, to becoming one of the greatest business leaders in American history. — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 17 Sep. 2026

Earlier buildings on the same site famously housed the Shoppers Corner five-and-dime store for much of the 20th century. — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 19 Aug. 2026

The brewery opened in 2021 inside a building constructed in 1952 as an Edwards five-and-dime store. — Noel Burgess, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026

The museum is near the site of Alice Walton’s father Sam Walton’s first five-and-dime store, in Alice’s childhood hometown, which is now home to Walmart’s global headquarters (and the small Walmart Museum, complete with a talking hologram of Sam Walton). — Brian Boucher, ARTnews.com, 8 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

from the fact that all articles in such stores were formerly priced at either 5 or 10 cents

First Known Use

1916, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for five-and-dime

• cefotaxime
• seriatim
• abeam
• airstream
• bloodstream
• daydream
• downstream
• esteem
• extreme
• grapheme
• hakim
• hornbeam