How do you use the word "twentieth" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "twentieth" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "twentieth": In the course of the twentieth century all this changed. We are living in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Twentieth Meaning

/ˈtwɛn.ti.əθ/

Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

adjThe ordinal form of the number twenty.

nounA person or thing in the twentieth position.

Sentence Examples

In the course of the twentieth century all this changed.

We are living in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

ordinal

Antonyms:

cardinal

CEFR Practice Quiz

After nineteen long years, the company celebrates its ____ anniversary this year.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The ____ century saw many major technological and social changes that have shaped the world as we know it today.

Word Origin & History

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.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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." — 1980, Christopher C. Rand, “Introduction”, in The Wilderness (Yüan-yeh) 原野, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page viii:

"The novel he lends his name to is an account of that life, taking more or less the form of a memoir set down in the years immediately after World War II by an old man mentally preparing for death, not quite at home in the twentieth century (and a little proud of it, stubbornly clinging to his eartrumpet), whose significant memories reach back to the early 1890s and beyond." — 2000, Bill Manhire, Doubtful Sounds: Essays and Interviews, page 124:

"“A shift from jus soli to jus sanguinis has been witnessed in Asia in the course of the twentieth century,” wrote Olivier Vonk at the Maastricht Centre in a 2017 paper." — 2021 March 15, Jessie Yeung, “These Asian countries are giving dual citizens an ultimatum on nationality – and loyalty”, in CNN, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2023:

"But in fact the antinomy of exceptionalism and assimilationism has been there all along, and otherwise puzzling decisions from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries become readily understandable when seen as moments when assimilationism was ascendant." — 2024 September 30, Michael Doran, “EXCEPTIONALISM AND ASSIMILATIONISM IN FEDERAL INDIAN LAW”, in Stanford Law School, volume 20, number 2, page 268, archived from the original on 24 Feb 2025:

"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." — 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chester (1848)”, in Rail, number 947, page 57:

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