twenty-one

noun

twen·​ty-one ˌtwen-tē-ˈwən How to pronounce twenty-one (audio)
ˌtwən-
1
: a number that is one more than 20 see Table of Numbers
2
[translation of French vingt-et-un] : blackjack sense 1
twenty-one adjective
twenty-one pronoun, plural in construction

Examples of twenty-one in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The man had previously been arrested four times for driving while drunk but had mostly avoided serious punishment—a pattern that continued when he was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter for Lightner’s death but given a sentence of only twenty-one months, with a portion spent in a halfway house. Charles Duhigg, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026 Nine hundred and twenty-one of the executives had previously engaged in financial misconduct, such as accounting or tax fraud while serving as an executive. Joseph Brazel, Forbes.com, 5 Jan. 2026 Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, had brought twenty-one witnesses to the hearing. Nick Bowlin, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025 Controlling passage through the palisade were twenty-one ornate gates, spaced approximately fifty kilometers apart, meant not only to curb immigration of Han Chinese and Koreans into Qing lands but also to limit movement of any natural resources out. Literary Hub, 14 Nov. 2025 See All Example Sentences for twenty-one

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1611, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of twenty-one was circa 1611

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Cite this Entry

“Twenty-one.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twenty-one. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.

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