Meaning & use
middle-aged man
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Meanings
phrasecountable
A man who is past youth but not yet old, roughly in his forties to early sixties.
Grammar: A fixed noun phrase that takes an and plural middle-aged men.
Patterns
- a middle-aged man in something
- a middle-aged man who does something
A middle-aged man in a gray suit waited at the bus stop.
The survey asked middle-aged men about their exercise habits.
He is a middle-aged man now, but he still plays in a band.
phrasecountablehumorous
A man who has the habits or worries typically linked with midlife.
Grammar: Used with humor or mild criticism when describing a stereotype: acting like a middle-aged man.
Patterns
- act like a middle-aged man
I bought a rowing machine and suddenly felt like a middle-aged man.
The comedian joked about being a middle-aged man who suddenly cares about lawn care.
Complaining about the thermostat made him feel like a middle-aged man.
Word forms
| plural | middle-aged men |
|---|
Common combinations
- a middle-aged man in a suit
- A middle-aged man in a suit hurried across the road.
- healthy middle-aged man
- The study followed healthy middle-aged men.
- balding middle-aged man
- A balding middle-aged man was reading the paper.
- typical middle-aged man
- The ad shows a typical middle-aged man buying a car.
- middle-aged men and women
- The club welcomes middle-aged men and women.
Synonyms and how they differ
- man in his forties
- This is more precise about age, while middle-aged man leaves the range vague.
- mature man
- Mature man is more polite and suggests experience, but it does not specify age.
- fiftysomething
- Fiftysomething is informal and refers to a narrower age range.
Opposites
Word family
- middle age noun
- the years between youth and old age
- middle-aged adjective
- neither young nor old
- middle-aged woman phrase
- a woman in midlife
- midlife noun
- the middle part of life
Commonly confused: middle-aged man or middle-class man?
middle-aged man vs middle-class man
Middle-class refers to social and economic status, not age.
Practice
Which person is best described as a middle-aged man?
Choose one answer.
Middle-aged means somewhere around forty-five to sixty-five, so a 52-year-old fits. The others are young or elderly.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “middle-aged man”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.