twain

UK: /'tweɪn/ US: /tweɪn/ ,(twān)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

twain /tweɪn/   adj., n. 

1. two:
   Never the twain shall meet (= Never the two shall meet, said of people or things that are in great disagreement).

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

twain (twān), adj., n. 

1. two.

• bef. 900; Middle English twayn origin, originally, nominative and accusative masculine, Old English twēgen (compare two); cognate with obsolete German zween

Twain (twān), n. 

1. Biographical Mark, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

twain / tweɪn/ determiner , noun

1. an archaic word for two

Etymology: Old English twēgen; related to Old Saxon twēne, Old High German zwēne, Old Norse tveir, Gothic twai

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

Twain / tweɪn/ noun

1. Mark, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. 1835–1910, US novelist and humorist, famous for his classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
2. Shania ( ʃəˈnaɪə ), real name Eilleen Regina Edwards. born 1965, Canadian country-rock singer; her bestselling recordings include The Woman In Me (1995), Come On Over (1997), and UP! (2002)