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

Only a week ago, Korea announced that in the first twenty days of August alone exports had risen by 56% year over year to $55 billion.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

Phase I of NASA's Moon Base architecture plan, which is underway now through 2029, calls for more than twenty robotic landings.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

When it opened in 1914, McCullough writes, the waterway was “the culmination of a heroic dream of four hundred years and of more than twenty years of phenomenal effort and sacrifice.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Engineers have guessed at where to grab hold, but Swift must have been altered by twenty years in orbit, according to Barber.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

It had been a cold week—fifty-three below one night, forty-five below the next two, and never rising above twenty below with wild wind out of the northwest the whole time.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

“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

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, temperatures will typically reach the low to mid twenties.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 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

It will also become warmer in Scotland and Northern Ireland with temperatures reaching the mid to high twenties.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

Most of them were in their twenties, it seemed to me—maybe in their late teens, but certainly older than I was.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu