twain

¹

[ tweyn ]

adjective

1. two.

Twain

²

[ tweyn ]

noun

1. Mark, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

twain

¹

/ tweɪn /

determiner

1. an archaic word for two

Twain

²

/ tweɪn /

noun

1. TwainMark18351910MUSWRITING: novelistWRITING: humorous writer 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)
2. TwainShania1965FCanadianMUSIC: country singer 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)

Word History and Origins

Origin of twain¹

before 900; Middle English twayn originally, nominative and accusative masculine, Old English twēgen ( two ); cognate with obsolete German zween

Word History and Origins

Origin of twain¹

Old English twēgen ; related to Old Saxon twēne , Old High German zwēne , Old Norse tveir , Gothic twai

Example Sentences

History has passed on the sense that the twain didn’t meet between the cold reason of science and messy passions of art.

From Nautilus

After downing oysters for breakfast and lunch, Twain wrote in 1864 he felt compelled “to move upon the supper works and destroy oysters done up in all kinds of seductive styles.”

From Popular-Science

Cosby had turned down the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor twice before.

From The Daily Beast

Mark Twain famously said courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.

From The Daily Beast

Twain taught me that although the act of writing is solitary, the context that sustains it is social.

From The Daily Beast

Twain found a way forward by making friends with other young writers.

From The Daily Beast

In 1861, the year Twain went to Nevada, it had more than five thousand.

From The Daily Beast

So the twain walked on very lovingly together, Dorothy gazing sadly and fondly at every well-known object in her path.

From Project Gutenberg

It is used in describing the operation of cutting in twain the animal sacrificed at the ratification of a covenant.

From Project Gutenberg

The twain immediately started, and roared in unison with their host most tremendously!

From Project Gutenberg

It is not, as Mark Twain would say, that there is anything the matter with it, Scotch beef is the best in the world.

From Project Gutenberg

He pretended that it was five hundred years' journey from one to another, and that he cleft the moon in twain.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• couple
• double
• pair
• team