Word.ws English Dictionary

twenties

twenties is the plural of twenty.

Noun

twenties pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The third decade of a century: the 1820s, 1920s, 2020s, etc.
    • My roommates said they were hosting a party inspired by the twenties which I assumed meant the 1920s but it turned out the theme was the 1120s BCE.
  2. (plural, plural-only) The decade of one's life from age 20 through age 29.
    • The waiter was in his twenties.
    • 1954 "The Fellowship of the Ring", J.R.R. Tolkien
      At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.
  3. (plural, plural-only, rates) The range between 20 and 29.
    • She shivered; twenties by the water felt different than twenties in the mountains.

Meaning of twenty

Noun

twenty (plural twenties)

  1. (in plural) The numbers twenty (20) to twenty-nine (29).
    • She looks like she's in her early twenties, perhaps 21 or 22 years old?
  2. (colloquial) A banknote with a denomination of 20.
    • The waiter’s face lit up when I gave him a twenty.
  3. (CB slang) 10-20 (location).
    • What’s your twenty, good buddy?
  4. (UK, historical) An old English division of infantry.

See all 6 meanings of twenty

Adjective

twenties (not comparable)

  1. From or evoking the 21st through 30th years of a century (chiefly the 1920s).
    • That bob haircut makes you look so twenties.
    • It tells the life of a Sicilian peasant girl, Teresa, who is brought to a village in Provence just after the First World War; is adopted by two very "twenties" lesbian ladies, one American, one English, who rebuild, maintain, and allow to decay, an old house called the Bishop's Palace.1987, George Kearns, “Post-Colonial Fiction: Our Custom Is Different”, in The Hudson Review, volume 40, number 3, →DOI, page 493

Synonyms of twenties

Forms of twenties

alternative form'twenties

Words formed from twenties

Phrases with twenties

Words that rhyme with twenties

Questions about twenties

What does twenties mean?
Twenties means the third decade of a century: the 1820s, 1920s, 2020s, etc.
What is twenties the plural of?
Twenties is the plural of twenty.
What part of speech is twenties?
Twenties can be a noun or an adjective.

Words near twenties in the dictionary

  1. twentagers
  2. twenteen
  3. twenteens
  4. Twenterand
  5. twentie
  6. twenties
  7. twentieth
  8. twentiethly
  9. twentieths
  10. twentish
  11. Twents

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: twenties (page history and authors); twenty (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:

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