DictionaryAI

thou

SayTHOW/ðaʊ/
As a nounTHOW

Noun pluralthous, thou

4 meanings of thou

Practice

  1. 1
    you (old)pronounarchaic
    Nominative singular of ye: the old form of you, used as the subject of a sentence when addressing one person.

    Kneeling at the altar, she whispered, "Thou knowest all my faults."

    Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion!
    1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

    UsageTakes old verb forms: thou art, thou hast, thou knowest, thou shalt.

    Note

    It is the subject form only; the object is thee, the possessive thy, or thine before a vowel, as in Dickens's "set up thine altar," and the reflexive thyself. Religious language kept it in use, from the King James Bible of 1611 to Charles Wesley's sermon of 1742. Most readers now meet it in holier-than-thou, from Isaiah 65:5, used of someone smugly sure of their moral superiority.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

    • Thou is nominative; its corresponding forms are thee, thy, thine before a vowel, and thyself. en.wikipedia.org
    • Thyself is the reflexive form. en.wikipedia.org
    • The words “set up thine altar” occur in the narrator's address to Death in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. gutenberg.org
    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. loc.gov
    • Religious texts preserved thou, including Charles Wesley's sermon preached and first published in 1742. divinity.duke.edu
    • Holier-than-thou derives from Isaiah 65:5 and denotes smug moral superiority. en.wiktionary.org
    • Isaiah 65:5 contains the wording “holier than thou.” en.wikisource.org
  2. 2
    money amountnounslangcountable
    A thousand, especially a thousand dollars, pounds or other units of currency.

    He paid forty thou for the truck and regretted it within a month.

    The kitchen remodel came in about ten thou over budget.

    UsageUsually no -s after a number: forty thou, a few thou.

    Similargrand, K, G, large

    Note

    Money slang that usually keeps its singular shape after a number or few: forty thou, a few thou in the account. Thous does turn up, as in Larry Pointer's In Search of Butch Cassidy (1977), where Butch hands over "3 thous in cash." Grand, K and large do the same job in the same casual register, and none of them belongs in a contract.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Larry Pointer wrote In Search of Butch Cassidy, first published in 1977. oupress.com
    • In Search of Butch Cassidy contains "3 thous in cash" in a passage describing Butch giving someone money. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    tiny lengthnouncountable
    A unit of length equal to one thousandth of an inch, or 25.4 micrometers.

    The machinist trimmed two thou off the shaft so the bearing would slide on.

    The older fitters talked in thous, while the drawings were still marked in fractions of an inch.

    Similarmil, mill

    Note

    The clipping is of thousandth, not thousand, so a few thou sanded off a part is a sliver of metal, while the money slang means real cash. It belongs to machining and engine work, where a fit is judged in thou rather than in fractions of an inch. Mil, used mainly in North America, names the same length.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The length-unit noun thou is clipped from thousandth, rather than thousand. en.wiktionary.org
    • Mil denotes the same length as thou and is particularly associated with North America. en.wikipedia.org

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    address someoneverbtransitive
    To speak to someone using thou instead of you, especially to show contempt or familiarity; also, simply to use the word thou.

    Back when 'thou' was kept for servants, children and close friends, to thou a stranger was a real insult.

    In the dales, a farmer would thou his own children but never the vicar.

    Similarthee

    Note

    A pronoun could be turned into a weapon: at Walter Raleigh's trial in 1603, Edward Coke told the prisoner "I thou thee, thou Traitor," and in the early Tudor play Hickscorner, a character bristles, "dost thou thou me!" Yorkshire kept the etiquette alive in its warning to overly familiar children: "Don't thou them as thous thee!"

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • At Walter Raleigh's trial in 1603, Edward Coke addressed him contemptuously with the words "I thou thee, thou Traitor." en.wiktionary.org
    • Hickscorner is an early Tudor play. en.wiktionary.org
    • A character in Hickscorner protests, "dost thou thou me!" gutenberg.org
    • "Don't thou them as thous thee!" is a Yorkshire admonition to overly familiar children. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of thou apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meaning 1

Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ ("you, thou") passed into Proto-Germanic and Proto-West Germanic as *þū ("thou," singular "you"), then into Old English þū and Middle English thou. German, Danish and Swedish du, Icelandic þú, Latin tu, and Ancient Greek σύ are relatives. Treating thou as informal, with ye for formal use, began in Middle English under French influence, since French marks politeness or respect with its plural vous instead of the singular tu.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 8 facts

  • Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ meant singular 'you, thou'. en.wiktionary.org
  • Proto-Germanic *þū descended from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ and meant singular 'you, thou'. en.wiktionary.org
  • Proto-West Germanic inherited *þū from Proto-Germanic. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English þū and Middle English thou continue this inherited Germanic pronoun. en.wiktionary.org
  • The listed German, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Latin and Ancient Greek pronouns are cognates of thou. en.wiktionary.org
  • The informal thou/formal ye distinction developed during Middle English. en.wikipedia.org
  • French influenced the development of this distinction in English. en.wikipedia.org
  • French uses plural vous as a polite or respectful singular form in place of tu. en.wiktionary.org
Meaning 4

From Late Middle English thouen (“to address a person with thou, particularly in a contemptuous or familiar manner”), from the pronoun thou.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Meaning 3

A clipping of thousandth.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

Meaning 2

A clipping of thousand.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact