English

Adjective

twee ‎(comparative more twee, superlative most twee)

1. (Britain, pejorative) Overly quaint, dainty, cute or nice.

   Those Beatrix Potter animals are a little twee for my taste.

   • 1999, Janet Foster, Docklands: Urban Change and Conflict in a Community in Transition, London; Philadelphia, Pa.: UCL Press, ISBN 978-1-85728-274-0, page 82:

     Despite the fact that the designs were all a bit twee […] they stood out a mile in the market place at that time.

   • 2001, Alan Murphy, Scotland Highlands & Islands Handbook: The Travel Guide, Bath, Somerset: Footprint Handbooks, ISBN 978-1-900949-94-1, page 11:

     Forget the clichéd image of Brigadoon and shortbread tins, the dreadfully twee tartan tat and Celtic kitsch that, sadly, still exists in the 21st century, and is too often passed off as a genuine Highland experience.

   • 2002, Peter Ellison, Essential Non-fiction, Dublin: Folens Publishers, ISBN 978-1-84303-231-1, page 40:

     As always with Disney, there are moments when it all seems a bit twee, others when it is excessively PC.

   • 2005 September 8, Stephen S. Hall, quoting Richard Dawkins, “Darwin's Rottweiler: Sir Richard Dawkins: Evolution's fiercest champion, far too fierce”, in Discover, archived from the original on 1 January 2016:

     I just wouldn’t have felt comfortable saying, "I am a duckbilled platypus, and this is how I find my shrimps." I think it would have been twee.

   • 2015 June 2, Kenneth Partridge, “With ‘West End Girls,’ Pet Shop Boys set a high standard for U.K. hip-hop”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 6 September 2015:

     [Neil] Tennant's accent obviously has a lot to do with that, but the fact he's rapping is further masked by his twee, effeminate delivery.

Synonyms

• precious
• saccharine
• syrupy

Related terms

• twee pop

Anagrams

• weet

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch twee, from Middle Dutch twee, twe, from Old Dutch twē, neuter form of twēne, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtveə/
• Rhymes: -eə

Numeral

twee

1. (cardinal) two

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eː
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /tβ̞eː/
• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /tʋeː/, [tʋeɪ]

Etymology

From Middle Dutch twee, twe, from Old Dutch twē, neuter form of twēne, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁. Compare German zwei, English twain.

Noun

twee f, m ‎(plural tweeën, diminutive tweetje n)

1. two

Numeral

twee

1. (cardinal) two

Derived terms

Anagrams

• weet
• wete

Low German

Numeral

twee

1. two

Middle Dutch

Alternative forms

• twe

Etymology

From Old Dutch twē, neuter form of twēne, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tweː/

Numeral

twêe

1. two

Descendants

• Dutch: twee

Plautdietsch

Numeral

twee

1. (cardinal) two, twain