Threshold

How to spell threshold

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce threshold

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does threshold mean?

1. nounThe level or point at which something begins to happen or take effect.
2. nounThe strip of floor or wood forming the bottom of a doorway.

Threshold in a sentence

• Earnings above that threshold are taxed at a higher rate.

• He paused on the threshold before stepping inside the house.

• The alarm triggers once noise crosses a set threshold.

• A worn brass strip marked the threshold between the two rooms.

Where does threshold come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a genuinely old native English word, recorded in Old English as 'þrescold' or 'þerscold', long before the Norman Conquest. The first part is clearly linked to 'thresh', the Old English verb 'þrescan' meaning to tread, trample, or beat, the action once used to separate grain by treading on it; the doorway sill was the place feet trod as people entered a building. The second part, the '-old' or '-hold' element, has never been satisfactorily explained, and scholars still argue over whether it relates to 'hold' or 'wood' or is simply an obscure formative, which is one reason the spelling has always been unstable. Note that despite sounding like 'thresh' plus 'hold', the modern word keeps only a single 'h' in the middle, so the common error 'threshhold' with two h sounds wrong but is a frequent slip. From the literal door sill the meaning broadened by the 1800s into the figurative point at which something begins or a measurable level that must be reached for an effect to occur.

How the word is built

• thresh (to tread or trample, as in threshing grain)
• -hold (an old suffix of uncertain meaning, possibly related to 'wood' or simply a sound element)