Word.ws English Dictionary

Twelfthtide

Syllables: twelfth·tide/ˈtwɛlfθtaɪd/

Twelfthtide proper noun: the season including Epiphany (the twelfth day after Christmas) and the evening of the preceding day (Twelfth Night), regarded as the end of the Christmas season; Epiphany itself.

twelfthtide: the season including Epiphany (the twelfth day after Christmas) and the evening of the preceding...
Image: Thelmadatter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Twelfthtide

  1. (archaic, obsolete) The season including Epiphany (the twelfth day after Christmas) and the evening of the preceding day (Twelfth Night), regarded as the end of the Christmas season; Epiphany itself.
    • Plough Monday, next after that Twelftide is past, / bids out with the plough, the woorst husband is last. / If ploughman get hatchet or whip to the skreene, / maides loseth their cock if no water be seene.1580, Thomas Tusser, “The Ploughmans Feasting Daies”, in W[illiam H.] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. … The Edition of 1580 Collated with those...
    • The Earl of Shrewsbury to Sir John Talbot. […] Therefore I will propose all the ways that I can think of and desire your opinion which is the safest, whether by a coach that often passes by here in its way to London, but the inconvenience of that is that it goes no more till towards Twelfthtide, or...1678 December 14, Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Report on the Manuscripts of the Duke of Bucculech & Queensberry, K.G., K.T., Preserved at Montagu House, Whitehall (Cd. 930), volume II...
    Synonyms:
    Epiphany, Twelvetide

Examples of Twelfthtide in a sentence

  • [T]he highlight of medieval Twelfthtide festivities was the food, where a variety of meats, sweets, and drinks were served.2010, Michele Sinclair, chapter 4, in The Christmas Knight (Zebra Historical Romance), New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, →ISBN:
  • Vevčani has held a Twelfthtide carnival on 13 and 14 January every year since the middle of the 6th century.2012 May, Thammy Evans, “Pelagonia, Prespa and Pelister”, in Macedonia: The Bradt Travel Guide, 4th edition, Chalfont St. Peter...

Synonyms of Twelfthtide

Forms of Twelfthtide

alternative formTwelfth tide
alternative formTwelfth-tide

Origin of Twelfthtide

From twelfth + -tide.

Questions about Twelfthtide

What does Twelfthtide mean?
Twelfthtide means the season including Epiphany (the twelfth day after Christmas) and the evening of the preceding day (Twelfth Night), regarded as the end of the Christmas season; Epiphany itself.
How do you use Twelfthtide in a sentence?
[T]he highlight of medieval Twelfthtide festivities was the food, where a variety of meats, sweets, and drinks were served.
What part of speech is Twelfthtide?
Twelfthtide is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Twelfthtide?
Twelfthtide is pronounced /ˈtwɛlfθtaɪd/ (UK).

Words near Twelfthtide in the dictionary

  1. twelfth-day cake
  2. twelfth-day cakes
  3. Twelfth-tide
  4. twelfthly
  5. twelfths
  6. Twelfthtide
  7. twelfty
  8. twell
  9. Twells
  10. Twellses
  11. twelth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Twelfthtide (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Twelfthtide.wav.

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