åtte

Åtte is the cardinal number eight in Norwegian, used in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. It appears in counting, ages, dates, measurements and other quantitative expressions, and is typically written either as the word åtte or as the digit 8.

Etymology: the form originates in Old Norse átta, with cognates in Danish otte and Swedish åtta. It derives from the Proto-Germanic root *ahta- and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *oḱtó.

Grammatical and numerical properties: the ordinal form is åttende. In mathematics, eight is an even, composite number, with divisors 1, 2, 4 and 8. In decimal, eight is represented as 8; in Roman numerals as VIII; in binary as 1000.

Usage notes: compounds such as åtte dager (eight days) or åtte personer (eight people) are common; åtte år gammel means eight years old. The word is used in time expressions like klokken åtte for eight o’clock. The term oktett can be used in scientific contexts to refer to a group of eight.

Cross-linguistic notes: åtte is closely related to the Norwegian words for eight in neighboring Scandinavian languages, with Danish otte and Swedish åtta. The number is even and foundational in the number system, and its forms appear across everyday language, mathematics, and computing contexts.