NODE / 0239attestedPresent-Day English

ten

PRONUNCIATION /tɛn/

the cardinal number one greater than nine

DATE: modern spelling; inherited word recorded before the 12th century
SENSE: cardinal number
FAMILY: Indo-European / Germanic
CANONICAL KEY: node:1:ten:attested:sense:cardinal-number

The headword node uses the modern spelling while the earlier Old and Middle English forms remain separate nodes.

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

GO DEEPERhistorical continuationestablished

Middle English · Middle English, c. 1150–1500 · cardinal number

ten

SOUND: Modern English ten continues the Middle English spelling with ordinary phonological stabilization.
MEANING: The cardinal value remains ten while later noun, rating, money, and idiomatic senses branch from it.
CHRONOLOGY: Middle English to modern English.
SCHOLAR: Merriam-Webster Editors
CONFIDENCE: established — The English continuity and historical forms are directly reported.

Ten — Definition and Word HistorysupportsWord History: Etymology and current definitions

Connects modern ten to the inherited English lineage and documents later noun and rating senses.

ORIGINAL ↗

OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 234 ↗

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

No reviewed descendants currently reuse this node. Absence describes the graph, not the entire history of the form.

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.

UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES: 0
REVIEWED EDGES: 0
DEEPEST PATH: 0
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED: 0

No downstream edge has cleared review for this node. This is a graph-coverage statement, not a claim that the historical form produced nothing.

“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

SOURCE-REPORTEDlexicographic first useestablished

First known use reported as before the 12th century

Merriam-Webster first-known-use record for ten

Source-reported medieval horizon. SET-U did not inspect a particular underlying Old English manuscript for this record.

ten dossier · recorded as ten

WITNESS RECORD ↗Ten — Definition and Word History ↗

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

01tenten · established