thing

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“
An ordinary acquaintance would be considered to be impertinent in even hinting at such a thing, although the thing were an established fact.

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Definitions (64)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (27)

  1. noun An entity, an idea, or a quality perceived, known, or thought to have its own existence.
  2. noun The real or concrete substance of an entity.
  3. noun An entity existing in space and time.
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Examples (50)

  • He had time to see that the burning eye of the thing was actually the dot of his laser beam and also to see several of his slugs hit home, tearing into the spinning, flapping bat-thing, but the screaming continued—grew worse, if anything. —  Dan Simmons - Hardcase
  • And I don't think either thing is a specifically Canadian phenomenon. —  InterzoneScienceFictionandFantasyMagazine#214
  • A man, a moment, a number, a class, a relation, a chimaera, or anything else that can be mentioned, is sure to be a term: and to deny that such and such a thing is a term must always be false. —  My Philosophical Development
  • The bottom of the thing was approximately twenty-five feet below them Big Renny studied the split in the ground a moment and then commented, "Some earth vibration has probably caused it You ain't seen nothing," put in Hardrock Hennesey. —  090 - Tunnel Terror
  • Warwick began wondering how the thing was to be accomplished. —  AdventureTales#1
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

something ·  life ·  man ·  place ·  word ·  book ·  body

Used in the same contextWord Family

thing:   things
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English thing, thyng, from Anglo-Saxon thing, sometimes thincg, thinc, a thing, also a cause, sake, office, reason, council, = Old Saxon OFries. thing = Dutch ding = Old High German dinc, Middle High German dinc, German ding = Icelandic thing, a thing (rare), plural articles, objects, things, valuables, jewels, also an assembly, meeting, parish, district, county, shire, parliament, = Swedish Danish ting = Gothic (Moesogothic) *thigg (not recorded); cf. Anglo-Saxon deriv. thingian, make an agreement, contract, settle, compose (a quarrel), speak, = German dingen, hold court, negotiate, make a contract (bedingen, make conditions, stipulate); prob. related to Gothic (Moesogothic) theihs (for *thinhs?), time. L. tempus, time: see tense, temporal. For the development of sense, cf. Anglo-Saxon sacu (= German sache, etc.), contention, strife, suit, cause, case, thing (see sake); also Latin res, a cause, case, thing, Latin causa, a cause, case, Middle Latin and Roman (Italian cosa = French chose), a thing. The sense ‘a concrete inanimate object’ is popularly regarded as the fundamental one, but a general notion such as that could hardly be original.
  2. Not from Anglo-Saxon thing, a council, but representing Icelandic thing, an assembly, conference, = Swedish Danish ting, a court, a place of assembly, a legal trial: see thing. Cf. husting.
 

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/tɪŋ/
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