"of a certain age" meaning in English

See of a certain age in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Etymology: Perhaps a calque of French d'un certain âge. Etymology templates: {{cal|en|fr|d'un certain âge|nocap=1}} calque of French d'un certain âge
  1. (euphemistic, chiefly of a person) Middle-aged or older. Tags: euphemistic Synonyms: getting on in years [indeterminate], on in years, long in the tooth, older, senior, elderly, geriatric
    Sense id: en-of_a_certain_age-en-prep_phrase-en:middle_aged_or_older Categories (other): English euphemisms, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Age Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 75 25 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 80 20 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 82 18 Disambiguation of Age: 55 45
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see of, a, certain, age: belonging to some particular specified age range. Related terms: time of life
    Sense id: en-of_a_certain_age-en-prep_phrase-en:literal Categories (other): Age Disambiguation of Age: 55 45
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "2": "fr",
        "3": "d'un certain âge",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "calque of French d'un certain âge",
      "name": "cal"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Perhaps a calque of French d'un certain âge.",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "_dis": "75 25",
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          "_dis": "80 20",
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          "_dis": "82 18",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "55 45",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Age",
          "orig": "en:Age",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: (indeterminate) getting on in years, on in years, long in the tooth; (past middle age) older, senior, elderly, geriatric; see also Thesaurus:elderly"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              7,
              23
            ]
          ],
          "text": "a lady of a certain age",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              29
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Now that I'm of a certain age, I need reading glasses to see up close.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              6,
              22
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1989, Graham Lyle, Albert Hammond, “I Don't Wanna Lose You”, in Foreign Affair, performed by Tina Turner:",
          "text": "Women of a certain age / They learn to rely and your job is responses / Having played the mating game",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Middle-aged or older."
      ],
      "id": "en-of_a_certain_age-en-prep_phrase-en:middle_aged_or_older",
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          "Middle-aged",
          "middle-aged"
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        "(euphemistic, chiefly of a person) Middle-aged or older."
      ],
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        "of a person"
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:middle-aged or older"
      ],
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          "tags": [
            "indeterminate"
          ],
          "word": "getting on in years"
        },
        {
          "word": "on in years"
        },
        {
          "word": "long in the tooth"
        },
        {
          "word": "older"
        },
        {
          "word": "senior"
        },
        {
          "word": "elderly"
        },
        {
          "word": "geriatric"
        }
      ],
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              20,
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          ],
          "text": "All able-bodied men of a certain age were subject to conscription by royal decree.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see of, a, certain, age: belonging to some particular specified age range."
      ],
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          "certain",
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        ],
        [
          "age",
          "age#English"
        ],
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          "age",
          "age"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "11 89",
          "word": "time of life"
        }
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:literal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "of a certain age"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms calqued from French",
    "English terms derived from French",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
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        "nocap": "1"
      },
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      "name": "cal"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Perhaps a calque of French d'un certain âge.",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
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    {
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        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              7,
              23
            ]
          ],
          "text": "a lady of a certain age",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              13,
              29
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Now that I'm of a certain age, I need reading glasses to see up close.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              6,
              22
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1989, Graham Lyle, Albert Hammond, “I Don't Wanna Lose You”, in Foreign Affair, performed by Tina Turner:",
          "text": "Women of a certain age / They learn to rely and your job is responses / Having played the mating game",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Middle-aged or older."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Middle-aged",
          "middle-aged"
        ]
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        "(euphemistic, chiefly of a person) Middle-aged or older."
      ],
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      "synonyms": [
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          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "getting on in years"
        },
        {
          "word": "on in years"
        },
        {
          "word": "long in the tooth"
        },
        {
          "word": "older"
        },
        {
          "word": "senior"
        },
        {
          "word": "elderly"
        },
        {
          "word": "geriatric"
        }
      ],
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        "euphemistic"
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      ],
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              20,
              36
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          ],
          "text": "All able-bodied men of a certain age were subject to conscription by royal decree.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see of, a, certain, age: belonging to some particular specified age range."
      ],
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        [
          "of",
          "of#English"
        ],
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          "a",
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        ],
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        ],
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          "age",
          "age#English"
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          "age",
          "age"
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      ],
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    }
  ],
  "word": "of a certain age"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.