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:
That’s why, if you don’t want your house cleaved in twain, diagnosing your trees is best left to a certified arborist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
As with “Atlanta,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” presents Glover in a zero-overlap zone where acting is acting and music is music and never the twain shall meet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 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
On Monday, the Official Charts Company said the album was on course to top this week's album chart, fending off competition from Snow Patrol, Shania Twain and The Strokes.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 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
“I do regard you as a true and trusted friend,” Musk said, according to a recording of the event, which was held at New York’s Lincoln Center and featured performances by Pink and Shania Twain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
As Mark Twain supposedly said, a lie can get halfway round the world before the truth can even get its shoes on.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
Liyana was writing about Mark Twain, since he too had lived in Missouri, her old state, and no one else in her class had chosen an American for their author’s report.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
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.
