Thanksgiving

How to spell thanksgiving

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce thanksgiving

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does thanksgiving mean?

1. nounThe expression of gratitude, especially a formal or religious offering of thanks.

Thanksgiving in a sentence

• The congregation gathered for a service of thanksgiving after the harvest.

• She offered a quiet prayer of thanksgiving when the test results came back clear.

Where does thanksgiving come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, joining 'thanks' to 'giving', and both halves are native Old English words. The first element traces back to the Old English noun 'thanc', which originally meant 'thought' or 'a thought of goodwill' before narrowing to mean the gratitude we feel and express; the same root sits behind 'think' and 'thank'. The second element comes from 'giefan', the ordinary Old English verb 'to give'. Put together, the word literally means 'the giving of thanks', and it appears in English from the sixteenth century as a religious term for the act of offering gratitude, especially to God. The familiar autumn holiday sense, a national day set aside for grateful feasting, developed later in North America. The spelling is friendlier than it looks once you remember it is simply 'thanks' plus 'giving' with no letters added or dropped, which explains the slightly awkward 'ksg' cluster in the middle.

How the word is built

• thanks (gratitude, from Old English thanc)
• giving (the act of giving, from Old English giefan)