thirty-eight

noun

thir·​ty-eight ˌthər-tē-ˈāt 

1

: a number that is one more than 37 see Table of Numbers

2

: a .38 caliber handgun

—usually written .38

thirty-eight adjective

thirty-eight pronoun, plural in construction

Examples of thirty-eight in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Much has changed in the Church’s approach in the thirty-eight years since. —Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2024

Though only thirty-eight years old, Gaetz, the scion of a political family in Florida’s Panhandle, had become one of the Republican Party’s most prominent and divisive figures. —Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2024

That share fell to thirty-eight per cent in August, 2022, the last time the center collected responses. —Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2023

Yet only one animal in thirty-eight developed a malignant lesion. —Siddhartha Mukherjee, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2023

New Haven is a compact city of a hundred and thirty-eight thousand people. —Nicholas Dawidoff, The New Yorker, 18 Nov. 2023

Just eight hundred and thirty-eight people voted in the Republican primary; Tan won by thirty-one votes. —Jasper Lo, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2023

Tomorrow claims that its forecasts are thirty-eight per cent better than everyone else’s, thanks to an artificial intelligence that the company has nicknamed Gale. —Laura Lane, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2023

That, too, was propelled by his serve, which his opponent, Nicolas Mahut, could not break in a fifth set that took a hundred and thirty-eight games. —Gerald Marzorati, The New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1541, in the meaning defined at sense 1