twenty

[twen-tee, twuhn-]

noun, plural twen·ties.

a cardinal number, 10 times 2.

a symbol for this number, as 20 or XX.

a set of this many persons or things.

Informal. a twenty-dollar bill: Can you give me two tens for a twenty?

twenties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 20 through 29, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or referring to degrees of temperature: He lives in the West Twenties. She's in her early twenties. The temperature must be in the high twenties today.

adjective

amounting to 20 in number.

Origin of twenty

before 900; Middle English; Old English twēntig; cognate with Old Frisian tw(e)intich, Old High German zweinzug (German zwanzig), Gothic twai tigjus two tens

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for twenties

Contemporary Examples of twenties

An Australian woman in her late twenties told me she was an “honorary Jew” with no actual Jewish heritage.
I Ate Potato Pancakes Til I Plotzed
Emily Shire
December 17, 2014
“It really sucks to be in your younger twenties,” Colfer told Esquire.
Chris Colfer on Writing, Acting, and the Pain of Being A Pop Culture Trailblazer
Oliver Jones
December 15, 2014
When I was in the closet in my twenties, I considered suicide almost every day.
Do LGBTs Owe Christians an Olive Branch? Try The Other Way Around
Jay Michaelson
December 14, 2014
He once told me that he only vaguely understood “the mechanical aspects of sex” until he was in his early twenties.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days
David Freeman
December 13, 2014
We were all young—in our twenties—and felt honored to be having dinner with Cosby.
‘I Saved My Friend From Bill Cosby’
Lloyd Grove
December 3, 2014

Historical Examples of twenties

Then we pass to the twenties (the second ten), and so on, from ten to ten.
Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook
Maria Montessori
From Forty-fourth Street to the Twenties was as familiar a path as any in his life.
The Wall Street Girl
Frederick Orin Bartlett
And it dawned on him that his twenties were slipping by and that he was becoming unsociable and grave.
The Forbidden Trail
Honor Willsie
Naturally, inevitably the Boston of my early twenties had vanished.
A Daughter of the Middle Border
Hamlin Garland
Up to this time they have been putting out tens and twenties.
Frank Merriwell's Bravery
Burt L. Standish

British Dictionary definitions for twenties

twenty

noun plural -ties

the cardinal number that is the product of ten and two; a scoreSee also number (def. 1)

a numeral, 20, XX, etc, representing this number

something representing, represented by, or consisting of 20 units

determiner

amounting to twentytwenty questions
(as pronoun)to order twenty

Related formsRelated adjectives: vicenary, vigesimalRelated prefix: icosa-

Word Origin for twenty

Old English twēntig; related to Old High German zweinzug, German zwanzig

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

Word Origin and History for twenties

1829 as the years of someone's life between 20 and 29; 1830 as a decade of years in a given century. See twenty.

twenty

Old English twentig "group of twenty," from twegen "two" (see two) + -tig "group of ten" (see -ty (1)). Cognate with Old Frisian twintich, Dutch twintig, Old High German zweinzug, German zwanzig. Gothic twai tigjus is even more transparent: literally "two tens."

The card game twenty-one (1790) is from French vingt-et-un (1781). Twenty-twenty hindsight is first recorded 1962, a figurative use of the Snellen fraction for normal visual acuity, expressed in feet. The guessing game of twenty questions is recorded from 1786. The Twentieth Century Limited was an express train from New York to Chicago 1902-1967.