Eleven

 

11 (eleven ⁱ/ɨˈlɛvɨn/ or /iˈlɛvɛn/) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12.
In English, it is the smallest positive integer requiring three syllables and the largest prime number with a single-morpheme name. Its etymology originates from a Germanic compound ainlif meaning "one left").

If a number is divisible by 11, reversing its digits will result in another multiple of 11.

11 is the atomic number of the element sodium.

Apollo 11 was the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon.

In Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Konqueror for KDE, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer for Windows, the function key F11 key toggles full screen viewing mode.

The approximate periodicity of a sunspot cycle is 11 years.

After Judas Iscariot was disgraced, the remaining apostles of Jesus were sometimes described as "the Eleven"

"Eleven pipers piping" is the gift on the 11th day of Christmas in the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

There are 11 members on a team in soccer, field hockey and American football.

The War to End All Wars (World War I) ended with an Armistice on November 11, 1918, which went into effect at 11:00 am—the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.

The stylized maple leaf on the Flag of Canada has 11 points.

Being only one hour before 12:00, the eleventh hour means the last possible moment to take care of something, and often implies a situation of urgent danger or emergency.

Three films -- Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) -- have each won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture of their respective years.

But, most important of all…

Eleven is the number of years I have maintained this blog.

As of September 25, 2014, Coming to Terms is eleven years old.

Wow.

(I’ll confess, I googled “eleven,” intending to educate myself on today’s magic number, but one of the things that came up was a wonderful Wikipedia page that did precisely that, and from which I have borrowed the choicest bits.)