Showing results for 'twas. Search instead for 'T+was.

'twas

American

[twuhz, twoz, twuhz] / twʌz, twɒz, twəz /

contraction of it was.

'twas British

/ twɒz, twəz /

contraction

it was

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

See contraction.

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.

A male voice in the cast parried with a hint of old-world courtliness: “Yet ’twas well sung, my friend!”

From New York Times • Feb. 16, 2023

That Wasn’t a canal — nay, ’twas a hat.

From Washington Post • Nov. 10, 2022

Various courts have since let us know that nope, 'twas merely a small crick against the doomsday direction in which we were previously heading.

From Salon • Aug. 6, 2021

When I made the trip to Victoria in search of holiday entertainment, ’twas still more than 50 nights before Christmas and 19 days before post-turkey antacids started flying off the shelves.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 29, 2018

I wasn’t ’bout to sneak no looks at Miss Daponte; ’twas well knowed that ’long with being the strongest woman in Possum Moan, she was also the orneriest one.

From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023