Word.ws English Dictionary

never the twain shall meet

never the twain shall meet phrase: used to emphasize that two subjects are so different that they cannot coexist or agree with each other.

Phrase

never the twain shall meet

  1. (idiomatic) Used to emphasize that two subjects are so different that they cannot coexist or agree with each other.
    • In Silverstein's terms, Frank is an "excitement seeker" and the lover is a "home builder." Never the twain shall meet. Again, for a while I saw the conflict between the two in the movie as a refreshing examination of a problem many gay couples (of both sexes) face. But […]1981 December 27, Charles Bonnell, “Throwing In The Towel”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 5

Origin of never the twain shall meet

Coined by the English author and poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) in his poem The Ballad of East and West (1889).

Questions about never the twain shall meet

What does never the twain shall meet mean?
Never the twain shall meet means used to emphasize that two subjects are so different that they cannot coexist or agree with each other.
What part of speech is never the twain shall meet?
Never the twain shall meet is a phrase.

Words near never the twain shall meet in the dictionary

  1. never say never
  2. never sick at sea
  3. never smoker
  4. never smokers
  5. never start a land war in Asia
  6. never the twain shall meet
  7. never the wiser
  8. Never Trumper
  9. Never Trumpers
  10. never trust me
  11. never was

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: never the twain shall meet (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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