Twenties
nounThe numbers or years from twenty to twenty-nine, especially a person's age range or a decade of a century.
How to spell twenties
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce twenties
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does twenties mean?
- nounThe numbers or years from twenty to twenty-nine, especially a person's age range or a decade of a century.
- nounBanknotes each worth twenty units of currency.
Twenties in a sentence
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She bought her first flat in her late twenties.
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The cashier counted out a stack of crisp twenties from the till.
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The building was constructed during the roaring twenties.
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He paid the deposit entirely in twenties rather than larger notes.
Where does twenties come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word is the plural of twenty, which comes straight from the Old English twentig, literally meaning 'two tens'. The first part traces back to twa, the ancestor of our modern 'two', while the -tig element was an old counting suffix meaning 'group of ten', the same piece that survives at the end of thirty, forty, and fifty. Germanic relatives such as Dutch twintig and German zwanzig were built on exactly the same pattern of 'two' plus the ten marker. By adding the ordinary -s plural, English speakers came to talk about the twenties as a span of years, whether the third decade of a person's life or a decade of a century. The spelling trap is the silent shift from the y of twenty to ie before the s, which catches writers who expect a plain y plus s.
How the word is built
- twenty (from Old English twentig: two tens)
- -s (plural suffix)
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