TWENTY-ONE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does twenty-one mean? 

• TWENTY-ONE (noun)
  The noun TWENTY-ONE has 2 senses:

1. the cardinal number that is the sum of twenty and one

2. a gambling game using cards; the object is to hold cards having a higher count than those dealt to the banker up to but not exceeding 21

  Familiarity information: TWENTY-ONE used as a noun is rare.

• TWENTY-ONE (adjective)
  The adjective TWENTY-ONE has 1 sense:

1. being one more than twenty

  Familiarity information: TWENTY-ONE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TWENTY-ONE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The cardinal number that is the sum of twenty and one

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

21; twenty-one; XXI

Hypernyms ("twenty-one" is a kind of...):

large integer (an integer equal to or greater than ten)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A gambling game using cards; the object is to hold cards having a higher count than those dealt to the banker up to but not exceeding 21

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

blackjack; twenty-one; vingt-et-un

Hypernyms ("twenty-one" is a kind of...):

card game; cards (a game played with playing cards)

• TWENTY-ONE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Being one more than twenty

Synonyms:

21; twenty-one; xxi

Similar:

cardinal (being or denoting a numerical quantity but not order)

 Context examples 

And after all, he is a mere boy of twenty-one.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A human life stage that begins at twelve years of age and continues until twenty-one complete years of age, generally marked by the beginning of puberty and lasting to the beginning of adulthood.

(Adolescence, NICHD)

A twenty-one question survey completed by a patient, with each answer scored on a scale of 0 to 3, designed to measure presence of depression.

(Beck Depression Inventory, NCI Thesaurus)

A human life stage that begins at nineteen years of age and continues until twenty-one complete years of age.

(Late Adolescence, NICHD)

He knows more about training than any man alive, and he has walked ninety miles in twenty-one hours.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We now know of twenty-one boxes having been removed, and if it be that several were taken in any of these removals we may be able to trace them all.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I have attained the dignity of twenty-one.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the Binomial Theorem, which has had a European vogue.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age of twenty-one years, are eligible.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Every twenty-one hours.

(Every Twenty-One Hours, NCI Thesaurus)