tweener
Americannoun
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tweeners
plural
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Sports. a player whose size or skills do not qualify them ideally for either of two positions.
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Tennis. a stroke by a player that sends the ball between the player's own legs.
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a thing or person that does not quite fit into either of two categories, such as light versus midsize pickup truck, tablet versus laptop, academic versus general educational stream, etc.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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:
Gates still held out NBA hopes, but he was a tweener at that size, too small to play forward at the next level.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2025
On his serve at 3-3, he produced a trademark tweener and backed it up by putting away a sharp volley.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2024
He’s kind of a tweener when you think about size and ability and strength and speed, and we want to take advantage of that and use him in multiple ways.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 2, 2023
Still, I say all this and yet can’t help myself: I want the tweener devices to work.
From The Verge ● Aug. 10, 2022
Coaches at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York City recently added a shot to the repertoire of fundamentals that top junior players learn: the tweener.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 3, 2022
But Moutet reeled off four straight games from 0-3 down, throwing in some underarm serves, dropshots and tweeners for good measure.
From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026
The Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche, once playoff tweeners, charged to second in their respective divisions in the West, and others had to make room.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 2, 2023
The assignment presents a variety of defensive threats, from tweeners like Paul Millsap to bruisers like Zach Randolph.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2015
“But a lot of the so-called guy movies recently have been rated R, and you lose a lot of tweeners that way,” he noted.
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2015
“The 7-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone, and too small to compete with an iPad,” Jobs said.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2012
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.
