thousand
thousand Lexical Profile
thousand Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Amounting to one thousand in number; consisting of ten hundred units or individuals.
"The ancient manuscript survived for over a thousand years in a desert monastery."
Innumerable or very many; used hyperbolically to indicate a vast, indefinite quantity.
"She offered a thousand apologies for arriving late to the dinner party."
• noun
The cardinal number equivalent to the product of ten and one hundred (1,000; Roman numeral M).
"The charity event raised more than ten thousand dollars for the local library."
A very large, indefinite number of people or things (usually used in the plural).
"Thousands of migratory birds gather along the coastal wetlands every autumn."
• pronoun
One thousand people or things previously mentioned or understood from context.
"Many applied for the scholarship, and over a thousand were selected to receive funding."
Word Nuance & Usage
When preceded by a specific number or determiner (such as 'two', 'several', or 'a few'), 'thousand' remains in the singular form ('three thousand people'); it takes the plural '-s' only when used alone to indicate an indefinite large quantity ('thousands of people').
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'þūsend', derived from Proto-Germanic '*þūshundī', a compound literally meaning 'swollen hundred' (from roots meaning 'to swell' and 'hundred').
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.