ENGLISH
REFERENCE

twenty

n.
A1 Beginner Oxford US //ˈtwɛni// UK //twˈɛnti// twen·ty Archaic General-service Informal

n. the number 20. It comes after nineteen and before twenty-one.

n. the cardinal number equivalent to the product of ten and two.


SIMPLE

There are twenty students in the classroom today.

CONTEXTUAL

The shop assistant gave me twenty dollars in change after I paid for the groceries.

COMPLEX

Although the committee originally requested thirty volunteers, only twenty arrived at the site to begin the restoration work on the historic building.

Synonyms
Origin

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.

Usage

Used as a determiner before a noun or as a noun to represent the number itself.

Idioms2 entries

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