twenty

American  

[twen-tee, twuhn-] / ˈtwɛn ti, ˈtwʌn- /

noun

• twenties
  plural

1. a cardinal number, 10 times 2.

2. a symbol for this number, as 20 or XX.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. Informal. a twenty-dollar bill.

   Can you give me two tens for a twenty?

5. twenties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 20 through 29, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or referring to degrees of temperature.

   He lives in the West Twenties. She's in her early twenties. The temperature must be in the high twenties today.

6. Slang. Also 20 location; ten-twenty.

   What’s your twenty?

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adjective

1. amounting to 20 in number.

twenty British  

/ ˈtwɛntɪ /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the product of ten and two; a score See also number

2. a numeral, 20, XX, etc, representing this number

3. something representing, represented by, or consisting of 20 units

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to twenty

      twenty questions

   2. ( as pronoun )

      to order twenty

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• twenties
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of twenty

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English twēntig; cognate with Old Frisian tw(e)intich, Old High German zweinzug ( German zwanzig ), Gothic twai tigjus two tens

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

twenty twenties

Nobody calculates how hungry they are with their entrée still twenty minutes away.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026

Nearly twenty scrolls discovered at Qumran address calendars and astronomy, an unusually large number that indicates how significant these subjects were to the community.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

Oroco hopes that its Mexican asset, which contains around a billion tons of copper ore and is forecast to have an operational life of twenty years, will commence production in 2032.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

He told me how, as a boy, he watched Kadim being built for the first time, then watched again as the settlers there were forced out by the government twenty years later.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

Two other people lived in his home; they were his pretty, cheerful, innocent niece, about twenty, and his plump housekeeper, about forty, who was a good, friendly soul, with strong opinions about everything.

From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios

"We're thrilled to have Lena turn her gaze from the tumult of one's twenties to the milestone of turning forty," Amy Gravitt, executive vice-president of HBO programming, said.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

With a budget of $70, Trinyce and Ijeoma, two women in their twenties, said they were trying to find something to decorate their apartment.

From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026

I was in my late twenties at the time because I’d taken a few detours after I left high school, most of them dead ends.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

And she noted that she has two children in their twenties who are struggling with housing costs and who oppose the project.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

Wei took a wad of bills out of his pocket and placed the twenties on the outside, then flicked past the tens and fives till he got to the ones, in the middle.

From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

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