Contraction Quaint is a term used to describe a type of language that is characterized by the use of contractions and archaic words. The crossword solutions for this term are EEN (3 letters), MAYNT (5 letters), TISNT (5 letters), TWAS (4 letters), TIS (3 letters), and SHANT (5 letters). These words are all contractions of longer words, such as 'it is not' becoming 'tisn't', and 'it shall not' becoming 'shant'. The archaic word 'twas' is a contraction of 'it was'. The other two words, 'een' and 'maynt', are contractions of 'it is' and 'it may not' respectively.