twang

/ˈtwæŋ/US/ˈtweɪ̯ŋ/

twang noun: the sharp, quick sound of a vibrating tight string, for example, of a bow or a musical instrument.

Noun

twang (plural twangs)

The sharp, quick sound of a vibrating tight string, for example, of a bow or a musical instrument.
- Let me give you in rude recitation, with here and there a twang and a caper of the guitar-strings, my vision of the Cid's sally from his besieged castle of Alcocer—the first outburst of that Spanish deluge that never receded till it rose over the dead body of the last Moor.1860, [George] Walter Thornbury, “Life in Spain: Past and Present”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, Franklin Square, →OCLC, page 148
A particular sharp vibrating sound characteristic of electric guitars.
A trace of a regional or foreign accent in someone's voice.
- Despite having lived in Canada for 20 years, he still has that Eastern European twang in his voice.
- A few insinuated that the American was not first-rate in Shakespeare, and one or two snidely detected a twang of the backwoods in his accent; […]2007, Nigel Cliff, The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-century America, Random House Incorporated, →ISBN, page 90
The sound quality that appears in the human voice when the epilaryngeal tube is narrowed.
- Near-synonym: nasality
- nasal twang
Synonyms:

nasality
A sharp, pungent taste or flavor; sometimes, a disagreeable one specifically.
- spicy twang
- Buttermilk also tastes different today. What do people do when they make buttermilk for the public that gives buttermilk that twang taste? Do these people put milk in an aging tank to mature like wine in a place where air and germs can't get to it?2011, Marvin Carpenter, The 1929 Depression: Hey! That’s Perry County!, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 2
Synonyms:

tang
(slang, vulgar) An annoying or stupid person; especially, a recalcitrant.

Verb

twang (third-person singular simple present twangs, present participle twanging, simple past and past participle twanged)

(ambitransitive) To produce or cause to produce a sharp vibrating sound, like a tense string pulled and suddenly let go.
(intransitive) To have a nasal sound.
(intransitive) To have a trace of a regional or foreign accent.
To play a stringed musical instrument by plucking and snapping.

twang meaning in Urdu, Telugu, Kannada and Punjabi

twang in Telugu

sound of a tight string: టంకారము ṭaṅkāramu

twang in Punjabi

sound of a tight string: ਤਰਬ tarab

Examples of twang in a sentence

I remarked a certain twang in his southern pronunciation.
Crèspy's patois and Midi twang battled for meaning against my stonewall classroom phrases.
Every time that inwit twanged ─ I have conscience like you, reverend sir!"

All 15 example sentences with twang

Synonyms of twang

Forms of twang

Noun
plural	twangs
Verb
third-person singular present	twangs
present participle	twanging
past participle	twanged
past	twanged

Plural of twang: twangs

Origin of twang

Onomatopoeic. Compare Middle English twengen (“to pinch, tweak”) (whence modern English twinge), from Old English twenġan (“to pinch, twinge”); Middle English twingen (“to afflict, torment, oppress”), from Old Norse þvinga (“to weigh down, oppress”); Old English twingan (“to force, press”).

Words formed from twang

Words that rhyme with twang

38 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about twang

What does twang mean?: Twang means the sharp, quick sound of a vibrating tight string, for example, of a bow or a musical instrument.
What is twang in Urdu?: Twang in Urdu is مقامی لہجہ, تیز ذائقہ. See Twang meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is twang?: Twang can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce twang?: Twang is pronounced /ˈtwæŋ/.
What is the plural of twang?: The plural of twang is twangs.

Words near twang in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: twang (page history and authors); twang (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); twang (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-twang.ogg.

Cite this entry: “twang.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/twang. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.