twentieth
English · Thesaurus
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twentieth
- /ˈtwɛn.ti.əθ/ UK
- [ˈtw̥ɛ̃n.ti.əθ] UK
- /-ɪθ/ UK, dated
- /ˈtwɛn.ti.əθ/ US
- [ˈtw̥ɛ.ɾ̃i.əθ] US
- /ˈtwɛn.i.əθ/ US
- [ˈtw̥ɛ̃ɾ̃.i.əθ] US
Where it comes from
From earlier twenteth, twentith, from Middle English twentithe, twentiþe, from Old English twēntigoþa. Equivalent to twenty + -eth.
Etymological notes
twentith, twenteth is the expected development from Middle English twentithe, but in time, the opaque twent- was replaced by a more transparent twenty-, resulting in modern twentieth (in the speech varieties this occurred in, the weak vowel in the final syllable of twenteth, twentith was clearly distinct from that in twenty); similar processes explain the modern pronunciation of thirtieth, fourtieth, etc. This analogy was assisted by synizetic pronunciations of words such as carrying, which allowed twenteth, twentith to be interpreted as contractions of twentieth.
adjective
- The ordinal form of the number twenty. As with most twentieth-century Chinese writers, little is known of Ts’ao Yü’s life. Though his ancestral home was Ch’ien-chiang 潛江, Hupei province, he himself was probably born in Tientsin in either 1909 or 1910.
noun twentieths
- A person or thing in the twentieth position.
- One of twenty equal parts of a whole. There are some glittering stats out there regarding Brassey: namely that he'd built around one-third of Britain's railways by the time he was in his early 40s, and that by the time of his death (aged 65) he was responsible for around one-twentieth of the world's railways.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: ordinal, twenty-first, twenty-fourth, nineteenth, twenty-second, twenty-seventh, seventeenth, eighteenth, century, twelfth, xx, vigesimal, twentiethly, fifteenth, sixteenth, thirtieth
Translations
Every language
adj ordinal form of twenty — see also 20th
| Español | vigésimo, veinteno, veintésimo, vicésimo |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 스무째 seumujjae |
| 日本語 | 第二十 dai nijū |
| 中文 | 第二十 dì èrshí |
| हिन्दी | बीसवाँ bīsvā̃ |
| Kiswahili | ishirini |
| Português | vigésimo |
| Français | vingtième, vingt |
| Deutsch | zwanzigste |
| Italiano | ventesimo, ventesima |
| Ελληνικά | εικοστός eikostós |
| Română | douăzecilea |
| Русский | двадца́тый dvadcátyj |
| Tiếng Việt | thứ hai mươi |
Talk about this word "twentieth." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/twentieth. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. twentieth. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/twentieth "twentieth." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/twentieth.Cite this
@misc{twentieth_2026,
title = {twentieth},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/twentieth},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
