thesis

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A long piece of writing based on research, especially for a university degree.

   She spent two years writing her doctoral thesis.

2. 2
   noun

   A statement or idea put forward as the main point of an argument.

   The book's central thesis is that cities make people more creative.

From Late Middle English thesis (“lowering of the voice”) and also borrowed directly from its etymon Latin thesis (“proposition, thesis; lowering of the voice”), from Ancient Greek θέσῐς (thésĭs, “arrangement, placement, setting; conclusion, position, thesis; lowering of the voice”), from τῐ́θημῐ (tĭ́thēmĭ, “to place, put, set; to put down in writing; to consider as, regard”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”)) + -σῐς (-sĭs, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, process, or result). The English word is a doublet of deed. Sense 1.1 (“proposition or…

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