twenty-one
/ˌtwɛntiˈwʌn/
"twenty-one" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“twenty-one” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a numeral. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The cardinal number occurring after twenty and before twenty-two, represented in Roman numerals as XXI and in Arabic numerals as 21.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | twenty-one |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Numeral |
| IPA | /ˌtwɛntiˈwʌn/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “twenty-one” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
twenty-one is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anumeral, transcribed /ˌtwɛntiˈwʌn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The cardinal number occurring after twenty and before twenty-two, represented in Roman numerals as XXI and in Arabic numerals as 21.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for twenty-one, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is twenty-one, spelled T-W-E-N-T-Y---O-N-E.
Definition
- 1The cardinal number occurring after twenty and before twenty-two, represented in Roman numerals as XXI and in Arabic numerals as 21.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “twenty-one”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-W-E-N-T-Y---O-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌtwɛntiˈwʌn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.