Etymologically
Log in

twentieth

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈtwɛn.ti.əθ/, /-ɪθ/[1]
  • US: /ˈtwɛn.ti.əθ/, /ˈtwɛn.i.əθ/[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old English twentigoþa,[2][3][4][5] from twentig (“twenty”) and the ordinal suffix -oþa.[2][4] In Middle English this became twentithe.[2][3] From the 16th century the word was remade from twenty and -th as twentieth.[2][6][3] Northern Middle English also had twentiand, with the ordinal suffix of Old Norse tuttugandi.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Next after the nineteenth, with its noun expressed: in the Old English Martyrology.[2]

Semantic evolution

The fraction, one of twenty equal parts, appears as a noun in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle (c. 1330) and as an adjective in William of Palerne (before 1375).[2] From 1643 the word stands alone, especially for the twentieth day of a month,[2] and in music it is the interval of two octaves and a sixth (1609).[2] Johnson (1755) defined it, more briefly, as "twice tenth; ordinal of twenty".[7]

Timeline

  • Old English – twentigoþa, the ordinal.[2]
  • c. 1330 – a twentieth part.[2]
  • 16th century – the modern form twentieth.[6]
  • 1609 – the musical interval.[2]
  • 1643 – used without a noun, as of a date.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Coming next after the nineteenth in a series; the ordinal of twenty, often written 20th.
  2. Being one of twenty equal parts: a twentieth share.

Noun

  1. Number twenty in a series, especially the twentieth day of a month: They arrive on the twentieth.
  2. One of twenty equal parts of something.
  3. (music) An interval of two octaves and a sixth.

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.