The duality in "dying twice" and "living twice" suggests that what is meant is the category of the experience (the process of transition) rather than a strict limit on the total number of "garments" (bodies) inhabited.
The structure of the return suggests that what man encounters within these "garments" is a form of purification, torment, or trial from which one cannot escape except through the mercy of God—Exalted is His Might. This meaning is repeated in several verses, including:
{They will not taste death therein except the first death, and He will have protected them from the punishment of Hellfire.} 1 And the Almighty said: {We will punish them twice; then they will be returned to a great punishment.} 2
In verse 56 of Surah ad-Dukhan, there is a clear indication of the existence of more than one death. If death were a singular, one-time event, the linguistic structure of the verse would have been framed to indicate absolute uniqueness. However, declaring something as "the first" (al-ūlā) inherently implies that there is something of the same kind that follows it in sequence.