twice

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English

English numbers (edit)
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/,
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪs

Adverb

twice (not comparable)

  1. 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
  2. (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.

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