Twin

How to spell twin

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce twin

What does twin mean?

1. nounOne of two children or animals born from the same pregnancy.
2. adjectiveForming a matched pair, or existing as one of two identical things.
3. verbTo link or pair two things together, especially towns formally partnered with each other.

Twin in a sentence

• noun

  Her newborn twin has the same dark hair as his brother.

• adjective

  The spare room has two twin beds rather than a double.

• verb

  Several English towns twin with cities across France.

• noun

  The boy visits his twin every weekend.

• adjective

  The aircraft is powered by a twin engine layout.

• verb

  The council wants to twin the village with a community abroad.

Where does twin come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from Old English, where forms such as twinn meant 'double' or 'consisting of two', and getwinn described two born together. The root traces back to a Germanic ancestor tied to the number two, the same family that gives us 'two', 'twice' and 'between', all sharing that initial 'tw' cluster that signals pairing. From the idea of doubling, it narrowed in everyday use to the familiar sense of two offspring delivered at one birth, recorded in English from the medieval period. It later broadened again as an adjective and verb for anything that comes as a matched pair, such as twin beds or twin engines, and for towns formally linked as partners. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable and is phonetic, so the main thing to remember is simply the 'tw' opening it shares with its sibling number words.

How the word is built

• twin (from Old English twinn: double, two together)