Definitions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun United States writer and humorist best known for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1835-1910)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • would be amazing to find that whole movie. i had to write about this last month; mark twain and the mysterious stranger. it was the last thing he wrote, a dark social commentary with satan as a main character. he died with it unfinished.

    brothercyst N A 2008

Comments

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  • an old word for the number two, derived from the Anglo-Saxon twegen. The American author Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), who had been a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi in his youth, took his literary name from a traditional riverboat phrase "mark twain", meaning "exactly two" fathoms of water. This was the minimum depth needed for the boats to operate safely without running aground.

    December 16, 2006