- [countable] (abbreviation doz.)a group of twelve of the same thing
- Give me a dozen, please.
- two dozen eggs
- three dozen red roses
- half a dozen bottles of wine
- a half-dozen bottles of wine
Definitions on the go
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- [countable] a group of approximately twelve people or things
- several dozen/a few dozen people
- The company employs no more than a couple of dozen people.
- Only about half a dozen people turned up.
- There was only space for a half-dozen tables.
- There were two dozen or so, men mostly, all looking a little bored.
- dozens[plural] (informal) a lot of people or things
- dozens of something I've been there dozens of times.
- We interviewed dozens and dozens of people.
- in dozens They arrived in dozens (= in large numbers).
- Babies are turning up in their dozens to be snapped for the paper's Baby of the Year competition.
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French dozeine, based on Latin duodecim ‘twelve’.
Idioms
See dozen in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarya dime a dozen (North American English)
(British English two/ten a penny)
- very common and therefore not valuable
it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other
- (saying) used to say that there is not much real difference between two possible choicesTopics Preferences and decisionsc2
talk, etc. nineteen to the dozen
- (British English, informal) to talk, etc. without stopping
- She was chatting away, nineteen to the dozen.
Check pronunciation:
dozen