Meaning & use
tenfold
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Meanings
adverbnot comparable
By ten times as much; to a degree that is ten times greater.
Grammar: Comes after a verb of change: sales rose tenfold.
Patterns
- increase tenfold
- grow tenfold
The population of the town has grown tenfold since the factory opened.
Her savings multiplied tenfold in just six years.
Costs fell tenfold once the new method was adopted.
adjectivebefore a noun
Ten times as large or as great; made up of ten parts.
Grammar: Sits before a noun: a tenfold increase, not an increase tenfold.
Patterns
- a tenfold increase in something
- a tenfold rise
The study reported a tenfold increase in online orders.
A tenfold reduction in waste would save the company millions.
Researchers noticed a tenfold difference between the two groups.
Common combinations
- increase tenfold
- Demand for the vaccine increased tenfold within a month.
- rise tenfold
- House prices in the area have risen tenfold since 1980.
- a tenfold increase
- A tenfold increase in traffic caused chaos downtown.
- a tenfold difference
- There is a tenfold difference in price between the two models.
- repay tenfold
- His kindness was repaid tenfold when the neighbors rebuilt his barn.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ten times
- Ten times is the plain spoken form, as in ten times bigger, while tenfold sounds a little more formal and fits reports and news.
- tenfold
- Tenfold is specific about the size, unlike greatly or enormously, which give no number.
- decuple
- Decuple is a rare technical word for tenfold and would sound odd in ordinary writing.
Word family
- twofold adjective
- double, or having two parts
- hundredfold adjective
- one hundred times as great
- manifold adjective
- many and varied
- ten number
- the base number of the word
Commonly confused: tenfold or ten-fold (hyphenated)?
tenfold vs ten-fold (hyphenated)
Standard usage writes tenfold as one word, while forms like 10-fold with a numeral are fine in scientific texts.
Practice
Which sentence uses tenfold correctly?
Choose one answer.
Tenfold works as an adverb after a verb of change, like grew tenfold. The other options put it in positions where it cannot modify anything naturally.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tenfold”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.