Twice Meaning
/twaɪs/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
advTwo times.
advDoubled in quantity, intensity, or degree.
Sentence Examples
Yes! I won twice in a row!
Your room is twice the size of mine.
The ball bounced twice before he could reach it.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He checked his email ____ a day, once in the morning and once at night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please remember to brush your teeth at least ____ a day to keep them healthy and avoid any dental problems today.
Word Origin & History
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”). Equivalent to twi- (“(in) two; both”) + -ce. Similarly constructed to the prefixes bis- and dis-, borrowed from Indo-European cognates.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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"
— 1824, Lord Byron, “Canto the Thirteenth”, in Don Juan:
"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."
— 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:
"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"
— 1934, J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”:
"Malay is the lingua franca of several Southeast Asia countries and has been simplified by its use as a second language by non-native speakers.
For example, the Malay plural is formed by repeating a word twice – buku means book and buku-buku means books."
— 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2022:
"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."
— 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:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He checked his email ____ a day, once in the morning and once at night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please remember to brush your teeth at least ____ a day to keep them healthy and avoid any dental problems today.