twain
adjective
two.
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twain
1 American
[tweyn]
/ tweɪn /
adjective
Twain
2
American
[tweyn]
/ tweɪn /
noun
Twain
1
British
/ tweɪn /
noun
-
Mark , pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens . 1835–1910, US novelist and humorist, famous for his classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
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Shania (ʃəˈnaɪə), real name Eilleen Regina Edwards. born 1965, Canadian country-rock singer; her bestselling recordings include The Woman In Me (1995) Come On Over (1997), and UP! (2002)
twain
2
British
/ tweɪn /
determiner
Etymology
Origin of twain
before 900; Middle English twayn originally, nominative and accusative masculine, Old English twēgen ( cf. two); cognate with obsolete German zween
Explanation
If you want an old-fashioned way to talk about two things, use the noun twain. You might lament that your pair of dogs was divided in twain when you had to give one of them away. The word twain is hardly ever used these days, so you're most likely to see it in an old book of poetry, or in the phrase "never the twain shall meet." This saying means that two people — or groups of people — are so unlike each other that they'll never manage to see things the same way. The origin of twain is the Old English word for two, twegen.
Vocabulary lists containing twain
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 3
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The Merchant of Venice
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When the wind blows hard, and their branches and boughs thrash and creak, I am convinced they will topple over and cleave my home in twain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
Historically, each group did their own thing, “and never the twain should meet until, like, you had to,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2024
“This is one of the evils of the ‘two cultures’ myth,” he says: Some students are channeled into scientific subjects, and others into humanities, and “never the twain shall meet.”
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 18, 2023
To an Italian, they're completely incomprehensible, because pasta is a primo piatto, a first course, and meat is a secondo, and never the twain shall meet.
From Salon ● Jan. 4, 2023
And at Batavia High School, never the twain shall meet.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
They also reportedly own a historic lodge in the Adirondacks that they purchased from music star Shania Twain and then-husband producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
“Mark Twain said there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. This website contains all three,” Lynn Tramonte, Ohio Immigrant Alliance’s executive director, said in a statement.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
Sticklers will note that “Roughing It” is supposedly nonfiction, but when was Mark Twain ever bound by technicalities, much less facts?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Asked by AFP about Russia's economic woes, the Russian leader on Thursday channelled Mark Twain.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
His books stood neatly along the glassed-in shelves of four vaultlike oak bookcases: the collected Shakespeare, Jefferson’s essays, Thoreau, Paine, Rousseau, Crevecoeur, Locke, Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Dickens, Tolstoy.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
