twenty

Meanings

1. 1
   num

   The number 20, which comes after nineteen and before twenty-one.

   There were twenty students in the classroom.

2. 2
   noun

   The number twenty, equal to nineteen plus one.

   Count to twenty before you open your eyes.

3. 3
   noun

   A banknote worth twenty dollars or pounds.

   The waiter's face lit up when I gave him a twenty.

From Middle English twenty, twenti, from Old English twēntiġ (“twenty”, literally “two tens”), from Proto-Germanic *twaintigiwiz, *twai tigiwiz, an old compound of *twain- (“two”) + *-tigaz (“group of ten”), equivalent to two + -ty, or twain + -ty. Cognate with Scots twenty, tuenty (“twenty”), West Frisian tweintich (“twenty”), Dutch twintig (“twenty”), German zwanzig (“twenty”), Danish tyve.

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