twenty to the dozen
very fast, fluently
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“She talks twenty to the dozen when she is excited.”
“My sister was so nervous about her interview that she spoke twenty to the dozen the entire time.”
“The auctioneer spoke twenty to the dozen, his rapid-fire delivery keeping the crowd engaged as the prices climbed higher and higher.”
The idiom arises from the suggestion of a quantitative imbalance in speech, as if one speaker were producing twenty words for every twelve uttered by their interlocutor. The phrase implies a pace of delivery that is socially inconvenient for those attempting to maintain a balanced conversation.
- 01
a dime a dozen
So common as to be practically or almost worthless.
- 02
baker's dozen
Thirteen; a group of thirteen.
- 03
baker's half dozen
Seven, a group of seven.
- 04
banker's dozen
Eleven.
- 05
cheaper by the dozen
Handled more efficiently as a group, rather than individually.
- 06
decimal dozen
Ten, a group of ten.
- 07
six of one, half a dozen of the other
The two alternatives are equivalent or indifferent; it does not matter which one is chosen.
- 08
twenty winks
A very short sleep, half as long as forty winks.
Last updated August 10, 2026