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PlainSpell

twist

/twɪst/noun, verb

twist is a noun meaning “A twisting force” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-W-I-S-T and has one syllable, and it appears 17 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of twist is twists.

What does twist mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A twisting force.

  2. 2

    Anything twisted, or the act of twisting.

  3. 3

    The form given in twisting.

  4. 4

    The degree of stress or strain when twisted.

  5. 5

    A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.

    I was one morning walking arm in arm with him in St James's Park, his dress then being […] waistcoat and breeches of the same blue satin, trimmed with silver twist à la hussarde, and ermine edges.

  6. 6

    A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.

  7. 7

    A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc.

  8. 8

    A distortion to the meaning of a passage or word.

verb

  1. 1

    To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.

  2. 2

    To join together by twining one part around another.

  3. 3

    To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve.

    June 8, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift twisting it into a serpentine form.

  4. 4

    To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.

  5. 5

    To wind into; to insinuate.

    Avarice twists itself into all human concerns.

  6. 6

    To turn a knob etc.

  7. 7

    To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating.

  8. 8

    To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce twist?

  • /twɪst/
  • [tw̥ɪst]

Twist has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-twist.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-twist.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of twist

  • twists plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • twisting participle, present
  • twisted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is twist?

Twist appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Twist in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Spanishtorsión, torcedura, torcimiento, tuerce, torción (twisting force), giro inesperado (unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc)
Portuguesetorcedura (anything twisted, or the act of twisting), twist (type of dance), torcer (to turn the ends in opposite directions), girar (to turn a knob etc), distorcer (to distort or change the truth or meaning)
GermanWendung (unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc), Twist (type of dance), verziehen, drehen (to turn the ends in opposite directions), Zwirn (type of thread), Biegung (sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a…)
Frenchtwist (type of dance), entortiller, tordre (to turn the ends in opposite directions), torsion (sprain, especially to the ankle)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does twist come from?

From Middle English twist, from Old English *twist, in compounds (e.g. mæsttwist (“a rope; stay”), candeltwist (“a wick”)), from Proto-Germanic *twistaz, a derivative of *twi- (“two-”) (compare also twine, between, betwixt). Related to Saterland Frisian Twist (“discord”), Dutch twist (“twist; strife; discord”), German Low German Twist (“strife; discord”), German Zwist (“turmoil; strife; discord”), Swedish tvist (“quarrel; dispute”), Icelandic tvistur (“deuce”). The verb is from Middle English twisten.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).