Eldest or oldest?
eldest is an adjective meaning “(of a player) Receiving cards from the dealer first, before any other players”; oldest is a noun meaning “The oldest child in a family, or individual in a group”. Use eldest as an adjective and oldest as a noun (eldest is also a noun: “The eldest child in a family, or individual in a group”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) oldest is about 3.5 times as common as eldest.
What is the difference between eldest and oldest?
| eldest | oldest | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | noun, adjective |
| Meaning | (of a player) Receiving cards from the dealer first, before any other players (of a hand) Having higher, or superior cards The eldest child in a family, or individual in a group | The oldest child in a family, or individual in a group |
| Example | none recorded | My oldest always forgets to turn the living room lights off before bed |
| Forms | none | oldests |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɛldɪst/ | /ˈəʊldəst/ /ˈoʊldəst/ |
| In writing | 4.9 times per million words | 17 times per million words |
Sources: eldest and oldest in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of eldest and oldest
eldest
- 1
(of a player) Receiving cards from the dealer first, before any other players
- 2
The eldest child in a family, or individual in a group
- 3
(of a hand) Having higher, or superior cards
oldest
- 1
The oldest child in a family, or individual in a group
My oldest always forgets to turn the living room lights off before bed
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, eldest or oldest?
eldest appears 4.9 times per million words; oldest 17 times per million words.
eldest 4.9 times per million wordsoldest 17 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search eldest vs oldest?
“eldest vs oldest” is searched about 2,400 times a month on Google and 80 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“oldest vs eldest”, “eldest or oldest”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.