twenty

Tok Pisin: twenti

From Middle English twenty, twenti, from Old English twēntiġ (“twenty”, literally “two tens”), from Proto-Germanic *twaintigiwiz, *twai tigiwiz, an old compound of *twain- (“two”) + *-tigaz (“group of ten”), equivalent to two + -ty, or twain + -ty. Cognate with Scots twenty, tuenty (“twenty”), West Frisian tweintich (“twenty”), Dutch twintig (“twenty”), German zwanzig (“twenty”), Danish tyve.

compound

see for numerical forms in other scripts

The cardinal number 20, occurring after nineteen and before twenty-one.


twenty

She looks like she's in her early twenties, perhaps 21 or 22 years old?

(in the plural) The numbers twenty (20) to twenty-nine (29).

What’s your twenty, good buddy?

What's your twenty?
 Where's your brain?
 Checking in to check you out
 Concerned about your whereabouts

2012, Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal, Gwen Stefani, 0:54 from the start, in Settle Down (music video), No Doubt (actor), Vevo:

(UK, historical, military) An old English division of infantry.


icosahedron

en-noun

icosahedron (plural icosahedra or icosahedrons)

icosahedra (plural)
icosahedrons (plural)

From Ancient Greek εἰκοσάεδρον (eikosáedron), from εἴκοσι (eíkosi, “twenty”) + ἕδρα (hédra, “face of a geometrical solid”). Equivalent to icosa- + -hedron.

(geometry) A polyhedron with twenty faces.


score

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

der

At Markes full fortie score they vs'd to Prick and Roue.

1612, Michael Drayton, chapter 26, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC:

A distance of twenty yards, in ancient archery and gunnery.

DEVLIN:You know the apple and core. Head might cost you a score, or more if you want a meat show on all fours.

2012 September 9, “Deepest Shame (New Machine Remix)”, performed by w:Plan B (musician),Chip,Devlin:

(British, slang) Twenty pounds sterling.

Some words have scores of meanings.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

1863 November 19, Abraham Lincoln, Dedicatory Remarks (Gettysburg Address)^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address_(Bliss_copy)), near Soldiers' National Cemetery, →LCCN, Bliss copy, page 1:

I went on trying for fish along the western bank down the river, but only small trout rose at my flies, and a score was the total catch.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152:


twenty-twenty

From a method of testing vision by reading charts at a distance of 20 feet.

All I want is 20/20 vision / A total portrait with no omissions

1978, “Picture This”, in Debbie Harry (lyrics), Parallel Lines, performed by Blondie:


twenty-twenty hindsight

From the term visual testing method 20/20 referring to normal visual acuity.

(idiomatic) Perfect understanding of events only after they have happened.


icosa-

From Ancient Greek εἴκοσι (eíkosi, “twenty”).


vigesimal

From Latin vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) (from *vīcēnssos, from Proto-Indo-European *wi(h₁)ḱm̥ttós, with the -imus ending of decimus (“tenth”)) + -al (suffix forming an adjective). Compare Latin vīgintī (“twenty”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wih₁ḱm̥ti, from *dwi(h₁)dḱm̥ti(h₁), *dwi(h₁)dḱm̥ti (“two tens; two decades”).

For indeed, looking at the activity of the historic Pen and Press through this last half-century, and what bulk of History it yields for that period alone, and how it is henceforth like to increase in decimal or vigesimal geometric progression,—one might feel as if a day were not distant, when perceiving that the whole Earth would not now contain those writings of what was done in the Earth, the human memory must needs sink confounded, and cease remembering!— […]

1899, Thomas Carlyle, “On History Again”, in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: In Five Volumes, volume III, London: Chapman and Hall Limited, →OCLC, page 172:

To go on by hands and feet to 20, and thence to reckon by twenties, is a vigesimal notation. Now though in the larger proportion of known languages, no distinct mention of fingers and toes, hands and feet, is observable in the numerals themselves, yet the very schemes of quinary, decimal and vigesimal notation remain to vouch for such hand-and-foot counting having been the original method on which they were founded.

1871, Edward B[urnett] Tylor, “The Art of Counting”, in Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, →OCLC, page 236:

The most remarkable vigesimal scale of numeration is that of the Mexicans. The decimal scale is adopted as far as twenty; that is to say, after ten the primitive digits are repeated, but from twenty onwards the numbers are taken by twenties. Thus 34 is canlahhutukal, literally fourteen and twenty.

1875, James A[llanson] Picton, “On the Origin and History of the Numerals”, in Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, volume XXIX, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer; Liverpool: D. Marples & Co. Limited, Lord Street, →OCLC, page 87:

With regard to the Danish numeral-words founded on the vigesimal system of numeration, it must be admitted that here the explanation fails which has been given for the divergence of the forms representing 70, 80 and 90 from the forms representing the lower numerals of 10 in the case of some other languages, since in the present case the forms for 50 and 60 also depart from the decimal system; […]

1923, Melius de Villiers, “Aryan Numeral-words”, in The Numeral-words: Their Origin, Meaning, History and Lesson, London: H. F. & G. Witherby, 326 High Holborn, London, W.C.; Cape Town; Johannesburg; Port Elizabeth: Juta & Co., →OCLC, page 93:

[I]t is not known whether they [the Maya] progressed beyond a "vigesimal point" to negative powers of 20, i.e. to vigesimal fractions.

1970, Petr Beckmann, “The Belt”, in A History of π (Pi), Boulder, Colo.: The Golem Press, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, 1971, →ISBN, page 34:


vigesimal

If the years of the incomplete century be divided into twenties, and the excess of twenties resolved into fours, the Dominical Letter will advance three places for every twenty, two places for every four, and six places for every unit of the still outstanding remainder. Hence the Sunday Letter will be found by taking the sum of four numbers, which may be called the centurial, the vigesimal, the quaternial, and the residual.

1872, Frederick A[ugustus] P[orter] Barnard, How to Find the Church Festivals without Tables; Being a Letter Addressed to the Chairman of the Committee of the Prayer Book in the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies of the General Convention of the Church, in 1871, Hartford, Conn.: The Church Press; M. H. Mallory and Company, →OCLC, page 4:

[column 1] The author of this article has also designed an instrumental contrivance for finding Easter by inspection, for any year from the beginning of the Christian era down to the end of hundredth century, in old style or new. […] [column 2] Around the fixed ring here described is a rotary ring bearing the numbers from 1 to 19 (the golden numbers) twice repeated, and at the left of these the vigesimals, arranged in regular order.

1876, F[rederick] A[ugustus] P[orter] Barnard, “Easter”, in Frederick A. P. Barnard, Arnold Guyot, editors, Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopædia: A Scientific and Popular Treasury of Useful Knowledge. [...], volumes I (A–E), New York, N.Y.: A[lvin] J[ewett] Johnson & Son, 11 Great Jones Street, New York; Pittsburg, Pa.: W. D. Cummings; San Francisco, Calif.: H. D. Watson, →OCLC, page 1463, columns 1–2:

They had all attended an abacus school (scuola d'abaco), where the basic training program, well known from the numerous practical treatises on the subject that survive, had taught them above all how to deal in different moneys and to make the four basic arithmetic calculations, using what for them was the standard mensural system based on vigesimals and duodecimals.

2009, Richard A. Goldthwaite, “The Network”, in The Economy of Renaissance Florence, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 83:

The Yoruba series of number names generates primarily around a base of twenty. […] The core process in the working of the system is progression from one vigesimal (twenty) point to the next. Multiplication generates multiples of ogún (twenty), or to be more exact, "multiple placing out," as the Yoruba verb embedded in the numeral has it. About the vigesimals, intermediate numerals are generated using tens and fives.

2010, Helen Verran, “Yorub and English Number Systems”, in Science and an African Logic, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 55:


twentysomething

This is the twentysomething generation, those 48 million young Americans ages 18 through 29 who fall between the famous baby boomers and the boomlet of children the baby boomers are producing.

1990 July 16, David M. Gross, Sophfronia Scott, “Proceeding With Caution”, in Time:

(informal) A person whose age is between twenty and twenty-nine years, inclusive; someone in their twenties.


vicenarian

From vicenary + -ian, from Latin vīcēnārius (“vicenary”), from vīcēnus (“twenty each”) + -ārius (“-ary: forming adjectives and related nouns”).

Melissa is a vicenarian at twenty-one years of age and a hairdresser.

2009, Iggy Pintado, Connection Generation, →ISBN, page 81:

« Excellent! » uttered the renowned scientist, visibly contented with the positive attitude of the developer, « I'm glad you mention this, because we feel you're that one-of-a-kind talent we've been looking for » he announced, staring at the appreciative vicenarian for a moment, « this last interview is just a mere formality to make sure we're still on the same wavelength, and to give you one last chance to change your mind, so...» he said, pausing for suspense as he stopped to turn to the eager candidate, readying himself to officialize their partnership, « unless you're about to tell me that you're not interested anymore, I'd like to welcome on my team » he proposed, extending his right hand towards the techie.

2011, 2206 : Window Onto A New World, page 72:

I must make the most of us both being vicenarians before you stagnate.

2013, Corri Lee, Blazed, →ISBN, page 75:

The admiration for the global brands by the vicenarians is one such sign.

2019, Ishan Bajpai, Temptation Road, →ISBN:


icosagon

From Ancient Greek εἰκοσάγωνος (eikoságōnos, “having twenty sides”), from εἴκοσι (eíkosi, “twenty”) + γωνία (gōnía, “angle”). Equivalent to icosa- + -gon.

uder

1993 The upper half of a regular icosagon frame is folded. - author? - Space Structures 4

(geometry) A polygon with twenty sides and twenty angles.


vicennial

From vicennium + -al or directly from Latin vīcenniālis, from vīcennium (“20-year span”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjective-forming suffix), from vīcennis (“20-year”) + -ium (“-ium”, suffix forming abstract nouns), from vīciēs (“20 times”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives). Equivalent to vice- (“twenty”) + -ennial.


vicennial

The maps are presented at 20-year intervals (vicennials) because of the nature of the data, particularly for years prior to 1960 when estimation procedures were not nearly as developed as today.

2022, Ira M. Sheskin, et al, “United States Jewish Population 2020”, in American Jewish Year Book 2020, page 176:

The feast of Constantine's vicennials fell on the 25th of July this year: it was the commencement of the twentieth year of his reign. It is supposed, that to avoid interrupting affairs or greater moment, this ceremony was deferred till the end of the council, which broke up the 25th of August.

1776, Charles le Beau, The History of Constantine the Great, page 267:

Roman coins mentioning the vota publica for Macrinus are RIC IV.1 5–13; on vota publica for the decennials and vicennials of emperors in the 2nd and 3rd c. ad, see Chastagnol 1984.

2022, Martin Hallmannsecker, Roman Ionia..., p. 110

(historical) Synonym of vicennalia, the festival and religious ritual held in the 20th year of a Roman emperor's reign.


ventile

(statistics) Any of the nineteen points that divide an ordered distribution into twenty parts, each containing one twentieth of the population.

vingtile

any of the nineteen points dividing a distribution into twenty parts

(statistics) Any one of the twenty groups so divided.


twenty to the dozen

As if saying twenty words to another's dozen.

He can talk French twenty to the dozen.


twomp

The name derives from hip hop. It may also come from resembling a thwomp (rectangular stone enemy character) from the Super Mario series. It takes this appearance when it is tightly packed into a small plastic bag and the edges become ruffled.

it's only gonna cost a twomp, right? hella cheap.

1999 April 7, Edmund Lee, “uop's banquet”, in ucd.org.fraternity.a-phi-o.d (Usenet):


icosahedral

Of the convex polyhedra with regular faces, the only ones that have tetrahedral, octahedral, or icosahedral symmetry are the Platonic and Archimedean solids.

1966, Norman W. Johnson, “Convex Polyhedra with Regular Faces”, in Canadian Journal of Mathematics, volume XVIII, number I, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, page 181:

Of, relating to, or having the shape of an icosahedron.


vigenary

From Latin vīgēnus (“twenty each”), variant of vīcēnus, + -ary. Cognate with English vicenary and vicenarious.

Synonym of vicenary, of, pertaining to, or based on the number twenty.


twoty

The colonel would then shout, "Twoty-twoth, form quarter distance column on the grenadier company."

1872, “Reminiscences of the Army”, in The Cape monthly magazine, volume 5, page 302:


vicesimo-quarto

From Latin ablatives of vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) and quartus (“fourth”).

(paper) A paper size, (2.5-3.3" x 5"-6.25"), one twenty-fourth of a standard uncut flat sheet.

(printing) A book size, (2.5"-3.3" x 5"-6.25"), corresponding to the paper size.


giggot

From Brythonic numerals, from an assummed *gwigent, from Proto-Brythonic *ʉgėnt, from Proto-Celtic *wikantī.

(Cumbria) twenty in Cumbrian sheep counting


twenty-fourmo

Vicesimo-quarto (as a paper size in printing).


vigintile

From Latin viginti (“twenty”) + -ilis (adjective-forming suffix).

(statistics) Any of the values in a series that divides the distribution of individuals in that series into twenty groups of equal frequency.


twentyness

(rare) The property of being twenty in number.


duodecade

Borrowed from Late Latin duodecas (“twelve”), from Ancient Greek δυωδεκάς (duōdekás, “twelve”). Equivalent to duodeca- + -ade.

der

Each Chinese New Year during a "Jupiter return"—when a duodecade has passed and the Chinese zodiac animal of your birth year comes back around—it is expected that you find some red underwear to put on for the special occasion.

A second part is meadow-land, and every twelve years this is divided into as many parts as there are holders of village rights, and each one receives a share, of which he has the exclusive use until the redivision at the end of the duodecade.

1880, The Popular Science Monthly, page 471:


duodecade

When I divide the past sixty years, 1706-65, into twenty-year periods, [I discover that] in the first duodecade, 702 people died, that is, an average of 35 a year. In the second period to 1745, 850, or 42i/$ each year, perished.

1996, Mary Lindemann, Health & Healing in Eighteenth-century Germany, →ISBN:

McIntosh sampled four to six consecutive Leet Court sessions, usually covering two to three years, in each twenty-year span or 'duodecade' of her period. Her f1gures therefore provide a minimum number of communities involved ...

(nonstandard) A period of two decades, a period of 20 years.


twenty-minute egg

en-noun

twenty-minute egg (plural twenty-minute eggs)

He was a twenty-minute egg, according to your grandfather, and such men are not soon forgotten.

1932, Peter B. Kyne, Lord of Lonely Valley:

The delegates to a national convention are, as the politicians say, "twenty-minute eggs," and such a convention is the super-market place for political deals and bargains, trades and treachery.

1938, Frank Richardson Kent, The great game of politics, page 246:

'A stinker?'
No, he said, it wasn't a stinker.
'A tough baby?'
'No.'
'A twenty-minute egg?'
'That was it, sir. Mr Runkle is a twenty-minute egg.'

1971, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, Much obliged, Jeeves:

(dated, slang) A very hard-boiled person; one who is tough and unsentimental


twenty winks

All right, go along to the doting mother, while I stretch out on the settle and chance twenty winks of sleep before Andrew turns up. I never sleep well on the train, as you know.

1931, Henry Berman, Life Demands! And Other Plays:

Twenty winks offered to drivers

2003 November 3, “Twenty winks offered to drivers”, in BBC.co.uk:

Twenty winks [title]

2004 November 10, Annalisa Barbieri, “Twenty winks”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic) A very short sleep, half as long as forty winks.


vigesimation

/vɪdʒɛsɪˈmeɪʃən/


vicesimation

vicesimation (countable and uncountable, plural vicesimations)

/ˌvɪsɪsɪˈmeɪʃən/

Probably formed by the suffixation of the Latin vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) with the English -ation on the pattern of decimation, but compare the Latin vīcēsimātiō (“a killing of every twentieth man”); the spelling vigesimation is an alteration of vicesimation under the influence of vigesimal.

cog

The common prisoners…were ordered to cast lots for every twentieth man to be tried, as a sort of vicesimation.

1834, Samuel Hibbert et al., History of the Foundations in Manchester of Chirst’s College, Chetham’s Hospital, and the Free Grammar School, volume 2, page 124:

We must change the numerator of our fraction.…If one must have the precise fractional term in “ation,” and the loss is one in five, let him coin the word quintation…if one in twenty, vicesimation.

1901, Joseph Fitzgerald, Word and Phrase: True and False Use in English, page 273:

(rare) The destruction of one-twentieth of something; especially, the killing or putting to death of every twentieth person, especially by lot.

ugeiniant

destruction of one-twentieth; killing of every twentieth

quintation (1

proportionate reduction, by single aliquot part


vigintivir

en-noun

vigintivir (plural vigintivirs or vigintiviri)

vigintivirs (plural)
vigintiviri (plural)

(historical) Any member of a group of twenty officials.


vicenary

/ˈvɪsəˌnɛɹi/

From Latin vīcēnārius, from vīcēnus (“twenty each”) + -ārius (“-ary: forming adjectives and related nouns”). Doublet of vicenarious. Ultimately cognate with English vigenary.

vicenary scale

vicenary numeration

Of, pertaining to, or based on the number twenty.


vicenary

/ˈvɪsəˌnɛɹi/

Delicat, another Captaine, or vicenarie in Sara, hauing vnder him twenty assistants.

1603, S. Harsnett, Declaration of Popish Impostures, page 49:

(military, obsolete or archaic) An officer in command of twenty men.


vigintivirate

From Latin vīgintivirātus, from vīgintivir + -ātus (“-ate”).

af

<i class="Latn mention" lang="en">-ate</i>

A group of twenty people, especially (politics) a council of twenty men sharing an office or rule and particularly (historical) such an administrative council in ancient Rome.


en-noun

24mo (usually uncountable, plural 24mos)


twenty-nail dystrophy

(medicine, dermatology) Trachonychia affecting all twenty of the fingernails and toenails.


vicennium

vicennium (plural vicennia or vicenniums)

From Latin vicennium, from vīcennis (“20-year”) + -ium, from vīciēs (“20 times”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives). Equivalent to vicennial + -ium.


docosa-

From Ancient Greek δώκοσι (dṓkosi, “twenty-two”), from δύο (dúo) + εἴκοσι (eíkosi).


short twentieth century

Eric Hobsbawm
Pantheon Books
The Age of Extremes

The concept underlying the proper noun was developed by the Hungarian historian Iván Tibor Berend (born 1930), and the term itself was popularized by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) in his book The Age of Extremes (1994). Like the corresponding terms long eighteenth century and long nineteenth century, it aims to define historical eras by significant events rather than by the arbitrary beginnings and ends of centuries.
The common noun was probably derived from the proper noun.

How are we to make sense of the Short Twentieth Century, that is to say of the years from the outbreak of the First World War to the collapse of the USSR which, as we can now see in retrospect, forms a coherent historical period that has now ended? We do not know what will come next, and what the third millennium will be like, even though we can be certain that the Short Twentieth Century will have shaped it.

1994, Eric Hobsbawm, “The Century: A Bird’s Eye View”, in The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914–1991, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, section II, page 5:

In the wake of the end of the short twentieth century and the related collapse of the received certainties of the cold war which had shaped the understandings of European and American thinkers, it has become clear that a new integrated global industrial-capitalist system is taking shape. […] However, setting aside the issue of the overall evolution of the global system to one side, it is the case that the end of the short twentieth century has seen not merely debate in respect of the creation of an integrated system but also a concern for an apparently deepening tripolarity.

1997, P. W. Preston, “Global Changes and New Political-Cultural Identities”, in Political/Cultural Identity: Citizens and Nations in a Global Era, London, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 91:

The year 1914 will be the crucial date for the beginning of this "short twentieth century," for the world war which began in August of that year marked a break with the classic liberal values of free enterprise, individual autonomy, and political liberty that had suffused nineteenth-century European societies.

2000 winter, Craig Moran, “The Idea of Communism in the ‘Short Twentieth Century’”, in Word & World: Theology for Christian Ministry: The Twentieth Century, volume XX, number 1, St. Paul, Minn.: Luther Seminary, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-01-21, page 41:

[Karl] Marx’s philosophy and its concretely applied adaptations would have extraordinary consequences especially in the short twentieth century, from the outbreak of World War I through the fall of the Soviet Union.

2012, Brad S[tephan] Gregory, “Relativizing Doctrines”, in The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 2015, →ISBN, page 121:

The epoch from whose dreams I wish to awaken is the twentieth century, and more particularly what Eric Hobsbawm has called "the short twentieth century" between the outbreak of World War I on 1 August 1914 and the collapse of the Soviet Union on 31 December 1991—a period that was incidentally, and probably not coincidentally, the bloodiest in recorded human history.

2013, Derek Sayer, “Introduction”, in Prague: Capital of the Twentieth Century: A Surrealist History, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 7:

The continuity that exists between the two centuries would appear to distance [Carl] Schmitt from [Eric] Hobsbawm and his description of the short 20th century. But we must squelch this first impression. […] The long 19th century can be explained as adding the "setback of over 60 years", from 1848 to 1917, to Hobsbawm's short 20th century.

2021, Miguel Saralegui, “Modernity and Postmodernity: Chronology as Philosophy of History”, in The Politics of Time: Introduction to Carl Schmitt’s Political Thought (Social Sciences & Humanities; 4), Santander, Cantabria, Spain: Cantabria University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 231:

However, Wang Hui's strong dissatisfaction with [Eric] Hobsbawm's "short 20th century" is that he believes that this concept was developed mainly from the European perspective, without taking into account the proper place of Chinese events and the Chinese revolution in the 20th century, […]

2022 November, Rong Jian, translated by Ren Zhi, edited by David Rong, Calling Back the Ghost of Revolution – Critique of Wang Hui’s View on Chinese Revolutionary History (Translation Series of Contemporary Chinese Scholars), New York, N.Y.: Bouden House, →ISBN, page 121:

(history, specifically) The period between 1914 and 1991, from the beginning of World War I to the fall of the Soviet Union.

ensimmäisen maailmansodan ja Neuvostoliiton hajoamisen välinen aika


icosatetramer

(chemistry) An oligomer that has twenty-four subunits


tetracosa-

Pseudo-loan from Ancient Greek, as if formed from τετρα- (tetra-) + εἴκοσι (eíkosi) by analogy with docosa-. However, Ancient Greek τετρακόσιοι (tetrakósioi) actually means “four hundred”, not “twenty-four”. The Ancient Greek word for “twenty-four” is εἰκοσιτέσσαρες (eikositéssares).


pentavigesimal

quinary-vigesimal (based upon both the numbers five and twenty).


vicenarious

From Latin vīcēnārius, from vīcēnus (“twenty each”) + -ārius (“-ary: forming adjectives and related nouns”). Doublet of vicenary. Ultimately cognate with English vigenary.

(rare) Synonym of vicenary: of, pertaining to, or based on the number twenty.


vigintennial

From viginti- (“twenty”) + -ennial (“yearly”), from Latin vīgintī (“twenty”) and -enniālis, from annus (“year”) + -is (“forming compound adjectives”) + -ālis (“-al: forming adjectives”).

af

(rare) Synonym of vicennial, occurring every twenty years.


vicennals

From Latin vīcennālia, from vīcennis (“20-year”) + -ālia (“-alia: forming festival names”), from vīciēs (“twenty times”) + annus (“year”) + -is (“forming compound adjectives”).

(historical, rare) Synonym of vicennalia: the festival and religious ritual held on the 20th anniversary of a Roman emperor's reign.


vicennalia

en-noun

vicennalia (plural vicennalia or vicennalias)

vicennalia (plural)
vicennalias (plural)

From Latin vīcennālia, from vīcennium (“20-year period”) + -ālia (“-alia: forming the names of festivals”), from vicennis (“20-year”) + -ium (“forming abstract nouns”), from vīciēs (“twenty each”) + annus (“year”) + -is (“forming compound adjectives”). Equivalent to vicennium + -alia.

Apart from the Vicennalia, 136 was an eventful year for the imperial family: the serious illness of Hadrian in the spring, the adoption of Aelius in the summer and the death and consecration of Sabina at the end of the year.

1971, P.V. Hill, "The Dating and Arrangement of Hadrian's COS III", Mints, Dies and Currency, p. 52

The exact timing of the tenth and twentieth anniversaries, the decennalia and the vicennalia, has already been discussed at length. The most straightforward solution, that it took place on the emperor's dies imperii ten years after the accession, has its adherents. However, a date earlier in the year, perhaps even the day of the beginning of the tenth year, may also be considered—at least in the second century AD.

2005, Jakob Munk Højte, Roman Imperial Statue Bases from Augustus to Commodus, p. 157

As a chronological list of Roman emperors makes clear, several rulers reign long enough to enjoy their decennalia, but relatively few were fortunate enough to celebrate their vicennalia, their twentieth imperial anniversary; and from the second century onwards Constantine alone ruled long enough to celebrate a tricennalia.

2012, Gary Forsythe, "Magna Mater and the Taurobolium", Time in Roman Religion, p. 111

(historical) The festival and religious rituals celebrating a Roman emperor's 20th year of rule.


(geometry) Synonym of icosagon: A polygon with twenty sides and twenty angles.