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

Over eight thousand Taco Bells and thirty-eight hundred Chipotles have institutionalized homogenized versions of Tex-Mex/Mexican cuisine across the US and elsewhere. —JSTOR Daily, 26 Nov. 2025

In 1990, Beckert notes, almost thirty-eight per cent of the world’s population lived on less than about two dollars per day; in 2022, only nine per cent did. —Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025

Maguire had created, as the author himself described it, a dense, almost nineteenth-century-type novel that takes place over thirty-eight years and has thirty-eight speaking parts. —CBS News, 16 Nov. 2025

Megan Reed, a smiley thirty-eight-year-old public-affairs manager for Bell, told me that the MV-75 was slated to replace the oldfangled Black Hawk, which entered service in 1979. —Seth Harp, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025

Our Streets, an exhibit that featured the photography of more than thirty-eight photojournalists, including that of September 11 victim Bill Biggart. —Lashawn Harris august 27, Literary Hub, 27 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1541, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for thirty-eight

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• adsorbate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate