twice

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.

• IPA^(key): /twaɪs/, [tw̥aɪs]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪs

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.

• double
• doubly
• two times
• See also Thesaurus:twice

• once
• thrice
• two-time