a tenth part; one part in ten equal parts
"She ate exactly one tenth of the apple, leaving nine other pieces behind."
position ten in a countable series of things
"She finished her race in tenth place, just behind the silver medalist."
The person or thing coming next after the ninth in a series; that which is in the tenth position.
"She finished her race as the tenth runner to cross the finish line."
In plain English: A tenth is one of ten equal parts that make up a whole thing.
"She finished her race in tenth place at the competition."
To divide by ten, into tenths.
"The recipe calls you to tenth the amount of sugar if you are doubling the batch size."
In plain English: To tenth something means to divide it into ten equal parts, though this usage is very rare and usually people just say they are dividing or splitting things up instead.
"He will not tenth place for the company until he shows better results."
The ordinal numeral form of ten; next in order after that which is ninth.
"She finished her speech at the tenth point, coming right after the ninth item on the agenda."
In plain English: Tenth means being out of order when you are supposed to be last but one among ten people or things.
"She finished her task on the tenth day without missing any deadlines."
Usage: Use "tenth" as an adjective to describe something ranked immediately after nine in a sequence or series. It functions correctly before the noun it modifies, such as in "the tenth chapter," without needing additional words like "of.
The word tenth comes from Middle English, where speakers reshaped an older form to match the pattern of other numbers ending in "ten." It ultimately derives from Proto-Germanic *tehundô and is formed by combining the numeral ten with a suffix that creates ordinal numbers.