Thorn
nounA stiff, sharp-pointed outgrowth on the stem or branch of a plant.
How to spell thorn
5 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce thorn
What does thorn mean?
- nounA stiff, sharp-pointed outgrowth on the stem or branch of a plant.
Thorn in a sentence
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A thorn from the rose bush pricked her thumb as she pruned it.
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He wore thick gloves to clear the bushes, since every branch hid a thorn.
Where does thorn come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Thorn is one of the oldest words in English, descending directly from the Old English noun 'thorn', which already meant a sharp point or a prickly spine on a plant. It traces back to a common Germanic source, related to the Old Norse 'thorn', Dutch 'doorn' and German 'Dorn', all carrying the same idea of a stiff, piercing point. The word is so ancient that the Anglo-Saxons even named a letter after it: the rune and later letter called 'thorn' represented the 'th' sound, and you can still see it survive in mock-old spellings like 'ye olde' (where the 'y' was originally that thorn letter). The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years, which is part of why it is easy: the 'th' at the front and the silent-free '-orn' ending behave exactly as they look. Its long history also explains why it appears in so many plant names and place names across England.
How the word is built
- thorn (from Old English thorn: a sharp point or spine), a single Germanic root with no prefix or suffix
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