Est. 1828

thousand

noun

thou·sand ˈthau̇-zᵊn(d)

pluralthousands or thousand

: a number equal to 10 times 100 see Table of Numbers

: a very large number

thousands of ants

thousand adjective

thousandfold

ˈthau̇-zᵊn(d)-ˌfōld

adjective or adverb

thousandth

ˈthau̇-zᵊn(t)th

adjective or noun

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Examples of thousand in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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As a result, Ballad Health expects that thousands of patients will be safer from adverse drug events.—Gil Press, Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024Tens of thousands have fled as the military has ordered a complete evacuation and allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter.—Wafaa Shurafa and Tia Goldenberg, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2024The crisis targeted potentially thousands of people at their most vulnerable, many of them Native Americans who were far from home.—Stephanie Innes, The Arizona Republic, 21 Dec. 2024Pagans still come by the thousands to Stonehenge, the prehistoric ruins of a monument built from around 3100 to 1600 BC.—Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 21 Dec. 2024See all Example Sentences for thousand

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English thūsend; akin to Old High German dūsunt thousand, Lithuanian tūkstantis, and probably to Sanskrit tavas strong, Latin tumēre to swell — more at thumb entry 1

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of thousand was before the 12th century

See more words from the same century