twice
English
| 20 | ||
| [a], [b] ← 1 | 2 | 3 → [a], [b] |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinal: two Ordinal: second Latinate ordinal: secondary Reverse order ordinal: second to last, second from last, last but one Latinate reverse order ordinal: penultimate Adverbial: two times, twice Multiplier: twofold Latinate multiplier: double Distributive: doubly Group collective: both, pair, twosome Multipart collective: doublet, couple, couplet Greek or Latinate collective: dyad Metric collective prefix: double- Greek collective prefix: di-, duo- Latinate collective prefix: bi- Fractional: half Metric fractional prefix: demi- Latinate fractional prefix: semi- Greek fractional prefix: hemi- Elemental: twin, doublet Greek prefix: deutero- Number of musicians: duo, duet, duplet Number of years: biennium | ||
Etymology
From earlier twise, from Middle English twies, twiȝes, from Old English twīġes (“twice”), from twīwa, twīġa ("twice"; whence Middle English twie (“twice”)) + -es (adverbial genitive ending). Related to Saterland Frisian twäie (“twice”), Middle Low German twiges, twies (“twice”), Middle High German zwies (“twice”). Compare also twi- meaning two or both.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /twaɪs/, [tw̥aɪs]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪs
Adverb
twice (not comparable)
- Two times.
- You should brush your teeth twice a day.
- 1824, Lord Byron, “Canto the Thirteenth”, in Don Juan:
- I've done with my tirade. The world was gone; / The twice two thousand, for whom earth was made, / Were vanish'd to be what they call alone
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.
- 1934, J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie (lyrics and music), “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”:
- Santa Claus is coming to town / He’s making a list, / And checking it twice, / He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice / Santa Claus is coming to town
- (usually with "as", of a specified quality) Doubled in quantity, intensity, or degree.
- 1826, John Nicholson, The Operative Mechanic, and British Machinist: Being a Practical Display of the Manufactories and Mechanical Arts of the United Kingdom, volume 1, H.C. Carey & I. Lea, page 78:
- Thus it appears that if the machine is turning twice as slow as before, there is more than twice the former quantity in the rising buckets; and more will be raised in a minute by the same expenditure of power.
- 1896, Livingston Stone, Domesticated Trout: How to Breed and Grow Them, 4th edition, page 304:
- You can't get anything thinner than a spring shad, unless you take a couple of them, when, of course, they will be twice as thin.
- 1952, Peter Lincoln Spencer, Building mathematical concepts in the elementary school, page 139:
- MARY: As you go from left to right, each example has twice as many twos; from right to left, twice as few.
- 1995, Louise Corti, Heather Laurie, Shirley Dex, Highly Qualified Women, Great Britain. Dept. of Employment, page 18:
- Both men and women with higher qualifications were twice as less likely to be unemployed than their less qualified counterparts.
Synonyms
- double
- doubly
- two times
- See also Thesaurus:twice
Derived terms
- a broken clock is right twice a day
- any day of the week and twice on Sunday
- any day of the week and twice on Sundays
- a stopped clock is right twice a day
- at twice
- even a stopped clock is right twice a day
- every day of the week and twice on Sunday
- every day of the week and twice on Sundays
- first cousin twice removed
- hit the ball twice
- I don't boil my cabbage twice
- I don't chew my cabbage twice
- lightning does not strike twice in the same place
- lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place
- lightning never strikes twice
- lightning never strikes twice in the same place
- measure twice and cut once
- money won is twice as sweet as money earned
- once a man, twice a boy
- once a man, twice a child
- once a woman, twice a child
- once or twice
- opportunity seldom knocks twice
- strike twice
- the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long
- think twice
- twice as less
- twice-baked bread
- twice-exceptional
- twice-exceptionality
- twice-laid
- twice removed
- twice-stabbed stink bug
- twice-told
- twice-weekly
- twice-yearly
- you can't step in the same river twice
Translations
two times
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