twenty

views updated Jun 27 2018

twen·ty / ˈtwentē/ • cardinal number (pl. -ties) the number equivalent to the product of two and ten; ten less than thirty; 20: twenty or thirty years ago twenty of us stood and waited a twenty-foot aerial. (Roman numeral: xx, XX.) ∎  (twenties) the numbers from twenty to twenty-nine, esp. the years of a century or of a person's life: he's in his late twenties. ∎  twenty years old: he's about twenty. ∎  twenty miles an hour. ∎  a size of garment or other merchandise denoted by twenty. ∎  a twenty-dollar bill.DERIVATIVES: twen·ti·eth / -tēi[unvoicedth]/ ordinal numbertwen·ty·fold / -ˌfōld/ adj. & adv.

twenty

views updated May 18 2018

twenty the cardinal number equivalent to the product of two and ten; ten less than thirty; 20. Recorded from Old English (in form twentig) the word comes from the base of two + -ty.
Twenty questions a parlour game in which a participant has twenty questions (answered by either ‘yes’ or ‘no’) to identify a chosen object. The first recorded reference is in a letter from Hannah More of 1786. In the 20th century, Twenty Questions became the name of a popular radio panel game.
twenty-four seven (usually written 24/7) twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Twenty-six Counties the counties constituting the Republic of Ireland, separated from the Six Counties of Northern Ireland by the peace agreement of 1921–22.
twenty-twenty the Snellen fraction for normal visual acuity, expressed in feet; used informally to denote good eyesight.

twenty

views updated May 18 2018

twenty OE. twentiġ = OS. twēntig, OHG, zweinzug (G. zwanzig); the first el. is obscure; cf. ON. tuttugu, Goth. twai tigjus; see -TY1.
Hence twentieth (-TH2) OE. twentigoða.