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twelfth.

The ordinal form of the number twelve, describing a person or thing in position number 12 of a sequence.

7 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/twɛlfθ/ [tʰw̥ɛɫfθ]UK, US/twɛlθ/ [tʰw̥ɛɤθ]UK, US/twɛlf/ [tʰw̥ɛɫʷf]UK, US/twɛlftθ/UK, US

  1. The ordinal form of the number twelve, describing a person or thing in position number 12 of a sequence.

    not-comparable
    The answer appears on the twelfth page of the book.
    She finished twelfth in the race.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English twelfthe, twelfte, from Old English twelfta (“twelfth”), from Proto-Germanic *twaliftô (“twelfth”), equivalent to twelve + -th (ordinal suffix). Cognate with Scots twalt (“twelfth”), Saterland Frisian tweelfte (“twelfth”), West Frisian tolfde (“twelfth”), Dutch twaalfde (“twelfth”), German Low German twalfde, twalvde (“twelfth”), German zwölfte (“twelfth”), Danish tolvte (“twelfth”), Swedish tolfte (“twelfth”), Icelandic tólfta (“twelfth”).

noun/twɛlfθ/ [tʰw̥ɛɫfθ]UK, US/twɛlθ/ [tʰw̥ɛɤθ]UK, US/twɛlf/ [tʰw̥ɛɫʷf]UK, US/twɛlftθ/UK, US

  1. One of twelve equal parts of a whole.

    A twelfth of 240 is 20.
    Five twelfths of the population voted in support of the proposal.

  2. An interval equal to an octave plus a fifth.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English twelfthe, twelfte, from Old English twelfta (“twelfth”), from Proto-Germanic *twaliftô (“twelfth”), equivalent to twelve + -th (ordinal suffix). Cognate with Scots twalt (“twelfth”), Saterland Frisian tweelfte (“twelfth”), West Frisian tolfde (“twelfth”), Dutch twaalfde (“twelfth”), German Low German twalfde, twalvde (“twelfth”), German zwölfte (“twelfth”), Danish tolvte (“twelfth”), Swedish tolfte (“twelfth”), Icelandic tólfta (“twelfth”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.