their
their Lexical Profile
their Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Belonging to or associated with the people, animals, or things previously mentioned or easily identified.
"The students opened their textbooks to the first chapter."
Belonging to or associated with a person of unspecified sex or a person whose gender identity is nonbinary.
"Every applicant must submit their resume by Friday afternoon."
• pronoun
The possessive case of the pronoun 'they' used as a determiner before a noun to indicate possession, agency, or association by multiple people or things.
"The birds built their nests high in the oak trees."
The possessive case of singular 'they' used as a determiner before a noun to refer to an individual of unknown or nonbinary gender.
"Someone left their umbrella in the conference room."
Word Nuance & Usage
Frequently confused in writing with its homophones 'there' (an adverb indicating a place or existence) and 'they're' (the contraction of 'they are'). Additionally, singular 'their' is widely accepted in modern English to refer to a person of unspecified gender or someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns.
• Rhymes for their
Word Origin & Etymology
Middle English, borrowed from Old Norse 'þeirra' ('of them'), the genitive plural of the demonstrative pronoun 'sá', which gradually replaced the native Old English form 'hira'.