These

How to spell these

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce these

What does these mean?

1. determinerUsed to refer to plural people or things that are near in space, time, or thought.

These in a sentence

• These documents need signing before the meeting.

• These are the keys to the storage unit.

Where does these come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from Old English, where it grew out of the plural forms of the demonstrative thes, this, and developed alongside the closely related 'this'. In the earliest stages the language used forms like thās and thǣs to point at more than one nearby thing, literally meaning 'these here'. The modern shape settled during the Middle English period, when the singular 'this' and the plural 'these' became neatly paired, while 'that' was matched with 'those'. It belongs to the same ancient family of pointing words that runs through the Germanic languages, sharing roots with the and that. The silent-looking spelling, with the final 'e' marking the long vowel sound, is the chief reason a fluent writer might pause, though it is mastered early and rarely missed.

How the word is built

• thes- (from Old English thǣs/thās, plural of this)
• -e