Word.ws English Dictionary

in twain

in twain prepositional phrase: in two, in halves, into two parts, asunder.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (archaic) In two, in halves, into two parts, asunder
    • When the masked stranger hew with his axe, the baker's head did split in twain and his body fell like a lump to the ground in turn.
    • And when cold Winter ſplit the Rocks in twain,
      And Ice the running Rivers did reſtrain,
      He ſtripp’d the Bears-foot of its leafy Growth,1697, trans. John Dryden, Virgil, Georgics, book IV, lines 202–205
    Synonyms:
    asunder

Examples of in twain in a sentence

  • No state ever before had been rent in twain.1913, Warren Wood, When Virginia was Rent in Twain:
  • […]shortly, it will rend my loins in twain, burst forth, and pull us down, down, down into the deep, dark waters of commitment.2003, Bill Odenkirk (writer), Kif Kroker in “Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch”, Futurama, season 4, episode 1

Synonyms of in twain

Origin of in twain

From Middle English in tweyn, in twen, in tweyne (also as on tweyne). Compare Old English on twēġen (“in two”).

Questions about in twain

What does in twain mean?
In twain means in two, in halves, into two parts, asunder.
How do you use in twain in a sentence?
No state ever before had been rent in twain.
What part of speech is in twain?
In twain is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in twain in the dictionary

  1. in trouble
  2. in true
  3. in truth
  4. in tune
  5. in turn
  6. in twain
  7. in two
  8. in two jumps
  9. in two minds
  10. in two shakes
  11. in two shakes of a cow's tail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in twain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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