dieciséis

See also: dieciseis

Asturian

Asturian numbers ^(edit)

←  15	16	17  →
Cardinal: dieciséis, (archaic) selce     Ordinal: decimosestu

Alternative forms

• selce

Etymology

From diez (“ten”) + y (“and”) + seis (“six”).

Numeral

dieciséis (indeclinable)

1. sixteen

Spanish

Spanish numbers ^(edit)

←  15	16	17  →
Cardinal: dieciséis     Ordinal: decimosexto, décimo sexto     Ordinal abbreviation: 16.º     Fractional: dieciseisavo
Spanish Wikipedia article on 16

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs

Proto-Italic *seks

Latin sex

Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥

Proto-Italic *dekəm

Latin decem

Latin sēdecim

Old Spanish dizeseis

▲

Latin sēdecim

Old Spanish diezeseis

Spanish dieciséis

Inherited from Old Spanish dizeseis, diezeseis (literally “ten and six”), an analytical form (compare Galician dezaseis, Portuguese dezesseis, dezasseis) replacing Old Spanish seze, sedze, from Latin sēdecim (compare Catalan setze, French seize, Italian sedici).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /djeθiˈseis/ [d̪je.θiˈsei̯s] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /djesiˈseis/ [d̪je.siˈsei̯s] (Latin America, Philippines)

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eis
• Syllabification: die‧ci‧séis

Numeral

dieciséis

1. sixteen

   Synonym: sece (obsolete)

Derived terms

• dieciseisavo

Descendants

• → Tagalog: disiseis

Further reading

• “dieciséis”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025