twenty
/ˈtwɛnti/ [-ɛɾ̃i]
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.65 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
num
The cardinal number 20, occurring after nineteen and before twenty-one.
noun
The numbers twenty (20) to twenty-nine (29).
noun
10-20 (location).
name
A hamlet in Bourne parish, South Kesteven district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF1520).
Example Sentences
- "She looks like she's in her early twenties, perhaps 21 or 22 years old?"
- "The waiter’s face lit up when I gave him a twenty."
- "Of course I can do them just the same as the others—technically there's nothing whatever against it. Only no one ever heard of soft flims for anything like that—only for fives or tens or at the most a twenty."
- "The more a shop looks as though it trades in farthings and ha’pennies, the more tenners and twenties you can expect to hand over at the till."
- "What’s your twenty, good buddy?"
- "What's your twenty? Where's your brain? Checking in to check you out Concerned about your whereabouts"
Etymology
From Middle English twenty, twenti, from Old English twēntiġ (“twenty”, literally “two tens”), from Proto-Germanic *twaintigiwiz, *twai tigiwiz, an old compound of *twain- (“two”) + *-tigaz (“group of ten”), equivalent to two + -ty, or twain + -ty. Cognate with Scots twenty, tuenty (“twenty”), West Frisian tweintich (“twenty”), Dutch twintig (“twenty”), German zwanzig (“twenty”), Danish tyve.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtwɛnti/ [-ɛɾ̃i]
- British English: /ˈtwɛnti/
Usage
- Colloquial
- British usage