half dozen
37
1.0
- noun
- /hæf ˈdʌzən/
:
media docena
- We received a half dozen cupcakes for the party.
- about a half dozen
- at least a half dozen
- a half dozen or more
And then there was, you know, half dozen orders, then a dozen.
- And then there was, you know, half dozen orders, then a dozen.
- I mean, there's when we went through the California murders, we found at least a half dozen that could fit the initial profile of this man.
- And this is in a half dozen countries now, mostly in the Americas, but there are they are popping up now in Europe.
- Your eyes may only get, you know, half dozen or so of those, but as you move your head around, you're seeing different parts of the scene.
- Almost nobody who's experienced like there's about a half dozen lawyers helping on vaccine mandate cases who are good, but for most of them that's it's a one off.
Examples
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I had a small but exceptionally able planning staff, some half dozen persons in all.
Academic text (1992) -
We're only a stone's throw away from at least a half dozen top-notch fishing lakes.
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We got about a half dozen out there!
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Most classes had at least a half dozen comments and questions before the bell.
Academic text (2014) -
Could we have a half dozen of the chocolate cinnamon?
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Now, two weeks into the second, 20 students are digging away at a half-dozen more.
Academic text (2005) -
At the base camp, the National Park Service had planted a half-dozen cypress trees.
Academic text (1991) -
Before the Civil War, there were at least a half-dozen minstrel shows staged by genuine blacks.
Academic text (2014) -
Russell watched as two men filled a half-dozen sandbags and hoisted them onto the truck.
Fiction book (1991) -
Joining me on the trail were a half-dozen heavily armed Frontier Police and local Pashtun tribesmen.
Academic text (2008)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
The number one more than five
121
1.0
A group of six people or things
30
1.0
Six things or people that form a group
A group of six people who do something together
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'six items' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'half' (one of two equal portions) with 'dozen' (twelve), so a listener can compute half of twelve = six. This numerical, compositional interpretation follows regular English compounding and is cross-linguistically common, making it obvious to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
The noun half dozen comes from simple counting: a dozen is twelve, so a half of a dozen is six. That's why it means 'a group of six'.