Fourteen is the number that comes after thirteen and before fifteen. It's written as 14 in numerals. If you count ten fingers and then four more toes, you've counted fourteen things. A fortnight, an old-fashioned word for two weeks, literally means “fourteen nights.”

Fourteen shows up in interesting ways throughout history and daily life. In many places, fourteen is the age when young people can start working part-time jobs. The fourteenth day of February is Valentine's Day. When you're learning fractions, you might notice that fourteen can be divided evenly by seven and by two.

The number has a special place in American history: the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed after the Civil War, granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all people born in the United States. In poetry, a sonnet contains exactly fourteen lines.

Some people consider fourteen an awkward age, caught between childhood and the teenage years, but it's also a time when many young people develop new independence and capabilities.