twelve
Americannoun
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twelves
plural
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a cardinal number, 10 plus 2.
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a symbol for this number, as 12 or XII.
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a set of this many persons or things.
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the Twelve, the 12 apostles chosen by Christ.
adjective
noun
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the cardinal number that is the sum of ten and two See also number
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a numeral, 12, XII, etc, representing this number
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something represented by, representing, or consisting of 12 units
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Also called: twelve o'clock. noon or midnight
determiner
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of twelve
before 900; Middle English twelve, inflected form of twelf, Old English twelfe literally, (ten and) two leave, i.e., two left over; cognate with Old Frisian twelef, twelf, Old High German zwelif, Old Norse tōlf, Gothic twalif; compare Lithuanian dvýlika; see two, leave 1, eleven
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:
Some of them were as young as twelve, others in their late seventies.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
“The English Patient” was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won nine, including Best Picture.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
“The global situation has continued to deteriorate over the past twelve months,” Chief Executive Oliver Blume said in a recorded message following the meeting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Researchers identified bones there belonging to at least twelve Neanderthals.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
It had twelve layers, and each one was a different kind of cake altogether.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
We need to think about the world in terms of twelves!
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 7, 2019
Six seeds are 86-50 against the elevens, fives are 89-47 against twelves, and once you get to fours vs. thirteens, you're in never gonna happen territory.
From Golf Digest ● Mar. 18, 2019
Your teacher chants, “Twelve twelves, a hundred thirty-four.”
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2012
In its line of eights and two lines of twelves are models for every taste in streamlining, as well as strictly conventional models for the strictly conventional.
From Time Magazine Archive
They never mentioned Petra’s dream, Calder’s problem-solving, Charles Fort, the twelves, or the blue ones.
From "Chasing Vermeer" by Blue Balliett
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.
