They

How to spell they

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce they

What does they mean?

1. pronounThe third-person plural pronoun, used to refer to two or more people or things already mentioned, or to a single person of unspecified gender.

They in a sentence

• The engineers said they would finish the report by Friday.

• When the guests arrived, they left their coats in the hallway.

Where does they come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is one of the few everyday English pronouns borrowed from Old Norse rather than inherited from Old English. The Old Norse form was þeir, meaning 'those ones' or 'they', a plural demonstrative. Old English had used its own native word, hie, for 'they', but that form had become weak and easily confused with other little words, so during the Viking settlements of the north and east of England the Norse pronoun gradually took its place. It spread south through the Middle English period and was firmly established by the 1400s, eventually pushing out the native form entirely. The same Norse source also gave English 'their' and 'them', which is why the three words look and sound so alike and are so often muddled in writing.

How the word is built

• they (third-person plural pronoun, from Old Norse þeir)