twentieth
/ˈtwɛn.ti.əθ/ adjective, noun
Forms twentieths
- adjective The ordinal form of the number twenty.
- noun A person or thing in the twentieth position.
- noun One of twenty equal parts of a whole.
Synonyms
Etymology
From earlier twenteth, twentith, from Middle English twentithe, twentiþe, from Old English twēntigoþa. Equivalent to twenty + -eth.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Next in order after the nineteenth; tenth after the tenth; coming after nineteen others; --the ordinal of twenty.
- adjective Consisting, or being, one of twenty equal parts into which anything is divided.
- noun The next in order after the nineteen; one coming after nineteen others.
- noun The quotient of a unit divided by twenty; one of twenty equal parts of one whole.
Etymology [From Twenty; cf. AS. twentigo. See Twenty.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “twentieth”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details