twenty

American  

[twen-tee, twuhn-] / ˈtwɛn ti, ˈtwʌn- /

noun

• twenties
  plural

1. a cardinal number, 10 times 2.

2. a symbol for this number, as 20 or XX.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. Informal. a twenty-dollar bill.

   Can you give me two tens for a twenty?

5. 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.

6. Slang. Also 20 location; ten-twenty.

   What’s your twenty?

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adjective

1. amounting to 20 in number.

twenty British  

/ ˈtwɛntɪ /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the product of ten and two; a score See also number

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

3. something representing, represented by, or consisting of 20 units

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to twenty

      twenty questions

   2. ( as pronoun )

      to order twenty

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• twenties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of twenty

First recorded 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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

twenty twenties

In November last year, the girlfriend of the alleged ringleader, Jesús "El Kekas" Gerardo, was sentenced in a separate trial to twenty years in prison.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

Nobody calculates how hungry they are with their entrée still twenty minutes away.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026

The results provide experimental support for an idea proposed about twenty years ago called the "DNA zipper" model.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026

Oroco hopes that its Mexican asset, which contains around a billion tons of copper ore and is forecast to have an operational life of twenty years, will commence production in 2032.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

I tried to save it for the very weakest—but even these soon numbered fifteen, twenty, twenty-five.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

With a budget of $70, Trinyce and Ijeoma, two women in their twenties, said they were trying to find something to decorate their apartment.

From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026

Five other men in their twenties were arrested and were subsequently released on police bail.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

“I’ve spent my entire twenties sitting across from the most incredible people, people I’d always dreamt of meeting,” she wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

And she noted that she has two children in their twenties who are struggling with housing costs and who oppose the project.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

When we came into the clearing, gun raised, they jumped and hastily greeted us in stumbling Anishnaabe, all except the second female, who must have been in her early twenties.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline