Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The cardinal number equal to the sum of 1 + 1.
  • noun The second in a set or sequence.
  • noun Something having two parts, units, or members, especially a playing card, the face of a die, or a domino with two pips.
  • noun A two-dollar bill.
  • idiom (in two) Into two separate parts; in half.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • One and one; twice one: a cardinal numeral.
  • noun The number which consists of one and one.
  • noun A symbol representing this number, as 2, II, or ii.
  • noun A group consisting of two individuals; a duality; a pair.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective One and one; twice one.
  • adjective a phrase often used indefinitely for a small number.
  • noun The sum of one and one; the number next greater than one, and next less than three; two units or objects.
  • noun A symbol representing two units, as 2, II., or ii.
  • noun asunder; into two parts; in halves; in twain; as, cut in two.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Describing a set or group with two components.
  • noun The digit/figure 2.
  • noun US, informal A two-dollar bill.
  • noun A child aged two.
  • noun The playing cards featuring two pips.

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

  • adjective being one more than one
  • noun the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number
  • noun one of the four playing cards in a deck that have two spots

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English twā; see dwo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English two, twa, from Old English twā ("two"), from Proto-Germanic *twai (“two”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ (“two”). Cognate with Scots twa ("two"); North Frisian tou, tuu ("two"); Saterland Frisian twäin, two ("two"); West Frisian twa ("two"); Dutch twee ("two"); Low German twee, twei ("two"); German zwei, zwo ("two"); Danish to ("two"); Swedish två, tu ("two"); Icelandic tvö ("two"); Latin duō ("two"); Ancient Greek δύο (dýo, "two"); Irish dhá ("two"); Lithuanian  ("two"); Russian два (dva, "two"); Albanian dy ("two"); Old Armenian երկու (erku, "two"); Sanskrit द्व (dvá, "two"); Tocharian A/B wu/wi ("two"). See also twain.

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Examples

  • AT the last rehearsal of "Joanna," Mr. Wild, the prompter, asked the author for an order to admit two friends to the boxes; and whether Mr. Cumberland was thinking of the probable proceeds of his play, or whether his anxiety otherwise bewildered him, cannot be ascertained; but he wrote, instead of the usual "two to the boxes" -- "admit _two pounds two_."

    The Jest Book The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings Mark Lemon 1839

  • A friend of mine who had two (I think it was actually *two*) abortions in Air Force hospitals (despite the "pro-choice" insistence that making abortion illegal prevents safe abortions for those who need them) because of tubal pregnancies did NOT feel guilty over having them.

    Suing your own abortionist for making you witness the murder of your accidentally delivered child. Ann Althouse 2009

  • Thus Albert is quick to point out that Avicebron in the Fons vitae is “the only [philosopher] who says that from one simple principle two [things] must immediately proceed in the order of nature, since the number ˜two™ follows upon unity.”

    Binarium Famosissimum Spade, Paul Vincent 2008

  • The virtue of this conception is that it explains how two or more people can be said to be thinking of the same abstract object, such as the number ˜two,™ and how various properties, such as the Pythagorean Theorem, can be said to follow logically from the idea of a right triangle.

    Malebranche's Theory of Ideas and Vision in God Nolan, Lawrence 2008

  • We have two performances a year and right now we are smack dab in the middle of our BIG show..two nights long... we had our first performance last night and are gearing up for tonight...

    Of Tights and Tutus Holly 2008

  • I've said that if your play is longer than two hours, maybe you should figure out exactly what you're saying and maybe write * two* plays.

    wake up! 2006

  •   But they had a new two engine,  two man craft capable of staying aloft from dawn to dusk.

    Lord Conrads Crusade Frankowski, Leo 2005

  • Of the 22 stories gathered here, two are new; three first appeared in _EQMM, _six in _AHMM, _two in _Analog, _seven in other mystery or SF magazines, and two in original anthologies.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • Of the 22 stories gathered here, two are new; three first appeared in _EQMM, _six in _AHMM, _two in _Analog, _seven in other mystery or SF magazines, and two in original anthologies.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • Yet instead of sensibly contrasting two irreconcilable ends of a half-century, half a world apart, Mr. Spender laments of the poets surviving Vietnam (as opposed to the survivors of Verdun) that only "one or two… is an exception in having ambitions which derive from an idea of poetry based on past examples… which exercise claims on the future."

    Cultural Barbarians? Barry, Jan 1973

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