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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

twist.

A twisting force.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/twɪst/[tw̥ɪst]
  1. A twisting force.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Anything twisted, or the act of twisting.

    countable · uncountable
  3. The form given in twisting.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The degree of stress or strain when twisted.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.

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

    countable · uncountable
  8. A distortion to the meaning of a passage or word.

    countable · uncountable
  9. An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc.

    countable · uncountable
    I'm all agog at the new twist to the royal scandal.
  10. A modern dance popular in Western culture in the late 1950s and 1960s, based on rotating the hips repeatedly from side to side. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details.

    countable · uncountable
  11. A rotation of the body when diving.

    countable · uncountable
  12. A sprain, especially to the ankle.

    countable · uncountable
  13. A twig.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  14. A girl, a woman.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  15. A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape.

    countable · uncountable
  16. A small roll of tobacco.

    countable · uncountable
  17. A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together.

    countable · uncountable
    Damascus twist
  18. The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.

    countable · uncountable
  19. A beverage made of brandy and gin.

    countable · obsolete · slang · uncountable
  20. A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination.

    countable · uncountable
    a twist toward fanaticism
  21. An appetite for food.

    archaic · countable · slang · uncountable
  22. Ellipsis of hair twist.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · uncountable
Where this word comes from

PIE word *dwóh₁ 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. Compare Dutch twisten, Danish tviste (“to dispute”), Swedish tvista (“to argue; dispute”).

verb/twɪst/[tw̥ɪst]
  1. To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.

  2. To join together by twining one part around another.

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

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

  5. To wind into; to insinuate.

    reflexive
    Avarice twists itself into all human concerns.
  6. To turn a knob etc.

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

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

  9. To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction.

  10. To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.

    intransitive
  11. To cause to rotate.

    transitive
  12. To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips).

    intransitive
  13. To coax.

    transitive
  14. In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card.

Where this word comes from

PIE word *dwóh₁ 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. Compare Dutch twisten, Danish tviste (“to dispute”), Swedish tvista (“to argue; dispute”).

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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.