thing

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an action

   how could you do such a thing?

2. 2
   noun

   an artifact

   how does this thing work?

3. 3
   noun

   an entity that is not named specifically

   I couldn't tell what the thing was

4. 4
   noun

   any attribute or quality considered as having its own existence

   The thing I liked most about the novel was how it made such big ideas accessible to a wider audience.

5. 5
   noun

   a special abstraction

   a thing of the spirit

6. 6
   noun

   a special objective

   the thing is to stay in bounds

7. 7
   noun

   a statement regarded as an object

   to say the same thing in other terms

8. 8
   noun

   an event

   a funny thing happened on the way to the...

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tenk-? Proto-Indo-European *tenkóm Proto-Germanic *þingą Proto-West Germanic *þing Old English þing Middle English thing English thing From Middle English thing, from Old English þing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing, from Proto-Germanic *þingą. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Ding (“thing”), West Frisian ting, ding (“thing”), Dutch ding (“thing”), German Low German Ding (“thing”), German Ding (“thing”), Swedish, Danish and Norwegian ting (“thing”), Faroese ting (“parliament, assembly”), Icelandic þing (“congress, assembly”). The word originally meant "assembl…