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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Infants were impacted more than any other group—and many died at least twenty-one months after the storm in question, meaning that they had not been conceived at the time of landfall. Clayton Dalton, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2025 To be going home to Sunday dinner at one o’clock, sweat socks pungent from twenty-one innings of softball, underwear athletically gamy. Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025 Five years ago, during the Brown Sugar tour, D was a shy twenty-one-year-old Virginia country boy who hid behind his keyboard onstage. Touré, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2025 The Smithsonian on October 12 closed all twenty-one of the museums operating under its auspices as the US government shutdown begun on October 1 continued to draw on. News Desk, Artforum, 13 Oct. 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 13 Nov. 2025.

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