twelve

• Twelve, TWELVE

Borrowed from English twelve.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtwɛlv]

twelve

1. (international standards) NATO, ICAO, ITU & IMO radiotelephony code for 12, used only with o'clock to indicate direction.

• Arabic numerals: 12
• Roman numerals: XII
• twelue (obsolete)

From Middle English twelve, from Old English twelf (“twelve”), from Proto-Germanic *twalif, an old compound of *twa- (“two”) and *-lif (“left over”) (i.e., two left over after having already counted to ten), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“leave, remain”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian tweelf, tweelif, tweelich (“twelve”), West Frisian tolve (“twelve”), Dutch twaalf (“twelve”), German Low German twalf, twalv (“twelve”), German zwölf (“twelve”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian tolv (“twelve”), Icelandic tólf (“twelve”).

• (UK, US) enPR: twĕlv, IPA^(key): /twɛlv/, [tʰw̥ɛɫv]
• (General Australian, New Zealand) enPR: twəlv, IPA^(key): /twəlv/, [tʰw̥əɫv], enPR: twĕlv, IPA^(key): /twelv/, [tʰw̥eɫv]
• (Southern US, African-American Vernacular, dated) enPR: twĕv, IPA^(key): /twɛv/, [tʰw̥ɛv]^[1]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlv

twelve

1. The cardinal number occurring after eleven and before thirteen, represented in Arabic numerals as 12 and in Roman numerals as XII.

   There are twelve months in a year.

   • 1972, Eleanor Webster Bulatkin, Structural Arithmetic Metaphor in the Oxford "Roland.", Ohio State University Press, →ISBN, page 10:

     Hopper points out that duodecads have been prominent in every ancient civilization and cites as examples twelve spokes in the wheel of the Hindu Rta, the twelve gates of hell where Egyptian Ra must spend the twelve hours of night, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve labors of Hercules, [...]

• twelveteen (nonstandard)

• Ordinal: twelfth

• → Japanese: トゥエルブ (tuerubu)

• Last: eleven. Next: thirteen

twelve (plural twelves)

1. A group of twelve items.

   Fractions would be a little easier if we counted by twelves.

2. A twelve-bore gun.
   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 880:

     In this way Von Esslin ‘inherited’ two fine hammerless twelves which he used once or twice for duck on the Camargue.

3. (law, colloquial) A jury (normally composed of twelve persons).
4. (slang) The police; law enforcement, especially a narcotics officer.
5. (military slang, by ellipsis of twelve o'clock) Front (front side of something, position in front of something).

   watch your twelve

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:twelve.

• twelfth

• dozen

• twelfe, twelf, twælf, tuelf

From inflected forms of Old English twelf, from Proto-West Germanic *twalif, in turn from Proto-Germanic *twalif.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtwɛlv(ə)/, /ˈtwɛlf(ə)/

twelve

1. twelve

• English: twelve
• Scots: twal, twol (obsolete twelf, twalf, tuelf)