Things
nounObjects, items, matters, or circumstances considered collectively.
How to spell things
6 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce things
What does things mean?
- nounObjects, items, matters, or circumstances considered collectively.
Things in a sentence
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She packed her things into a small suitcase before the trip.
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Things at the office improved once the new manager arrived.
Where does things come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word descends from Old English 'thing', which in Anglo-Saxon times did not first mean an object at all but rather an assembly, a meeting, or a legal case brought before such a gathering. The same root survives in Old Norse 'thing' and in the Icelandic parliament name 'Althing', which still means a public assembly. Over centuries the sense drifted from the matter discussed at an assembly to the matter or affair itself, and from there to any object or entity whatsoever. The plural simply adds the native Germanic '-s' ending. Because the word is so old, common, and phonetically regular, its spelling has stayed remarkably stable, with the 'th' and the 'ng' digraphs that English inherited directly from its Germanic core.
How the word is built
- thing (object, matter, affair)
- -s (plural suffix)
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