zestig

Zestig is the Dutch word for the cardinal number 60. It is used in counting, in expressions of age, and when referring to years in dates. As a numeral, zestig functions as a standalone quantity and does not change for gender or case.

Linguistically, zestig is a Germanic word. It is cognate with the English word sixty and the German word sechzig, reflecting shared roots in the language family. This common ancestry underlines how Dutch, English, and German express the same numerical value in related forms.

In typical Dutch usage, zestig appears before a noun to express a quantity, as in zestig mensen (sixty people) or zestig jaar oud (sixty years old). It is also the basis for the ordinal form zestigste, which means the sixtieth. Like other Dutch numerals, zestig is usually written as a single word when used as a number.

Notes on usage are mainly the same across standard Dutch varieties. While the number itself is straightforward, larger numbers and compound numerals in Dutch may follow separate rules for construction, but zestig remains a stable and common numeral in everyday language.