Twice

//twaɪs// adv

adv ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Two times. not-comparable

    "You should brush your teeth twice a day."

  2. 2
    Doubled in quantity, intensity, or degree. not-comparable, usually

    "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."

Adverb
  1. 1
    two times wordnet
  2. 2
    to double the degree wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bisbiweeklydoubledoubledoublydoubly

Example

More examples

"Your room is twice the size of mine."

Etymology

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.

Related phrases

I don't boil my cabbage twiceI don't chew my cabbage twicea broken clock is right twice a daya stopped clock is right twice a dayany day of the week and twice on Sundayany day of the week and twice on Sundaysat twicebuy the same horse twiceeven a stopped clock is right twice a dayevery day of the week and twice on Sundayevery day of the week and twice on Sundaysfirst cousin twice removed

More for "twice"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.