twinned

1. 1
   adjective

   Produced at a single birth, or otherwise paired or joined so closely as to be united.

   The twinned calves shared the same enclosure from the day they were born.

   Critics described the novel's twinned plots as mirror images of one another.

   Similarpaired, linked

   Note

   An adjective that keeps the idea of birth in view even when it is used figuratively. Shakespeare's Timon of Athens (c. 1605–1608) uses it literally, with an elided spelling: "Twinn'd brothers of one womb." Applied to plots or images, it suggests a pairing so close that the two seem born together. It is not comparable, so a thing is twinned or it is not, never more twinned. Unlike the verb's past form, it names a state, not an act.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of twin.

   The two cities twinned in 1985 to promote cultural exchange.

   The villages had twinned long before either became famous.

   Note

   A past form that can record opposite actions: twin can mean to separate or part as well as to join or pair. The joining sense usually appears in the passive, and it now applies especially to two places in different countries. A town is twinned with a partner abroad, so with is the preposition to use. The active pattern, two cities twinned, is the less usual construction.

   Our town has been twinned with a village in Normandy for decades.

   Each school is twinned with a partner school overseas.

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