twee
/twiː/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.50 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Those Beatrix Potter animals are a little twee for my taste."
- "Despite the fact that the designs were all a bit twee […] they stood out a mile in the market place at that time."
- "Forget the clichéd image of Brigadoon and shortbread tins, the dreadfully twee tartan tat and Celtic kitsch that, sadly, still exists in the 21st century, and is too often passed off as a genuine Highland experience."
- "As always with Disney, there are moments when it all seems a bit twee, others when it is excessively PC."
- "I just wouldn’t have felt comfortable saying, "I am a duckbilled platypus, and this is how I find my shrimps." I think it would have been twee."
- "[Neil] Tennant's accent obviously has a lot to do with that, but the fact he's rapping is further masked by his twee, effeminate delivery."
Etymology
From a childish pronunciation of sweet. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use in 1905 in Punch.
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /twiː/
Usage
- British usage
- Derogatory
- Uncountable