twain
/tweɪn/
twain numeral: two.
Numeral
twain
- two
- But the warm twilight round us twain will never rise again.
- Bring me these twain cups of wine and water, and let us drink from the one we feel more befitting of this day.
Adjective
twain (not comparable)
Noun
twain (plural twains)
Verb
twain (third-person singular simple present twains, present participle twaining, simple past and past participle twained)
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Twain
Twain
Proper noun (2) capitalized: TWAIN
TWAIN
twain meaning in Urdu, Telugu and Kannada
twain in Urdu
- جوڑا
twain in Telugu
- ట్వైన్
twain in Kannada
- ಟ್ವೈನ್
Examples of twain in a sentence
- Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.1889, Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West, line 1:
- And whenever Sir Chetwynd spoke of his "young girls" he was moved to irreverent smiling, as he knew the youngest of the twain was at least thirty.1897, Marie Corelli, “Chapter I”, in Ziska: The Problem of a Wicked Soul, New York: Stone & Kimball, page 25:
Forms of twain
| Numeral | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | twaine |
| Noun | |
| plural | twains |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | twains |
| present participle | twaining |
| past participle | twained |
| past | twained |
Origin of twain
PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English tweyne, tweien, twaine, from Old English twēġen m (“two”), from Proto-West Germanic *twai-, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁. Cognate with Saterland Frisian twäin, Low German twene, German zween. More at two. The word outlasted the breakdown of gender in Middle English and survived as a secondary form of two, then especially in the cases where the numeral follows a noun. Its continuation into modern times was aided by its use in KJV, the Marriage Service, in poetry (where it is commonly used as a rhyme word), and in oral use where it is necessary to be clear that two and not to or too is meant.
From Middle English twaynen, from twayne (“two”, numeral) (see Etymology 1 above).
English surname meaning "divided in two," from the numeral/adjective twain.
Words formed from twain
Phrases with twain
Words that rhyme with twain
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- drain
- pane
- gain
- main
- sustain
- vein
- entertain
- skein
- Wayne
- abstain
- bane
- campaign
- champagne
- crane
- entrain
- fain
- insane
- maine
- pain
- plane
- stain
- wane
- Aquitaine
- ascertain
- chicane
- contain
- detain
- explain
- maintain
- mundane
- obtain
- refrain
- remain
- vane
- amain
- arcane
- Blaine
- complain
- deign
- detrain
- distrain
- kane
- ordain
- pertain
- profane
- public domain
- reign
- swain
Questions about twain
- What does twain mean?
- Twain means two.
- What is twain in Urdu?
- Twain in Urdu is جوڑا. See Twain meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use twain in a sentence?
- Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.
- What part of speech is twain?
- Twain can be a numeral, an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce twain?
- Twain is pronounced /tweɪn/.
Words near twain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: twain (page history and authors); Twain (page history and authors); TWAIN (page history and authors); twain (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); twain (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twain (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-twain.ogg.
Cite this entry: “twain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/twain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.