twelves
- 1Plural of twelve.
The decorative pattern repeats in twelves across the entire border.
Fresh eggs are usually packaged and sold in twelves.
Note
A regular plural, formed with -s like any countable noun. It counts groups of twelve, as when eggs are sold in twelves, and it can also count twelve-bore guns or the figure 12 written out more than once. Keep it distinct from the printer's book size: that word has the same spelling, but it is uncountable and never means more than one of anything.
- 2A book format produced by folding each printed sheet into twelve leaves, yielding a small, compact volume.
The publisher reprinted the popular novel in twelves for cheaper distribution.
Many devotional manuals of the period appeared in twelves so readers could carry them.
Similarduodecimo
Note
A printer's and bibliographer's word: the English name for duodecimo, often written 12mo. Each sheet is folded into twelve leaves, which gives twenty-four pages and a volume smaller than octavo. Despite the final -s, it is uncountable. A book is printed or bound in twelves, never "a twelves," and the preposition in is the usual way to attach it to a title or edition.
twelves is a form of twelve
twelve, noun: A group of twelve items, counted or sold together as a unit. Full entry
- Forms
- twelvetwelves plural
- Spelling
- twelve → twelves: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
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