thousand
English
1,000 | ||
---|---|---|
100 | ||
Cardinal: thousand Ordinal: thousandth Multiplier: thousandfold |
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English thousend, thusand, from Old English þūsend (“thousand”), from Proto-Germanic *þūsundī (“thousand”), (compare Scots thousand (“thousand”), Saterland Frisian duusend (“thousand”), West Frisian tûzen (“thousand”), Dutch duizend (“thousand”), German tausend (“thousand”), Danish tusind (“thousand”), Swedish tusen (“thousand”), Norwegian tusen (“thousand”), Icelandic þúsund (“thousand”), Faroese túsund (“thousand”), from Proto-Indo-European *tuHsont-, *tuHsenti- (compare Lithuanian tūkstantis (“thousand”), Russian ты́сяча (týsjača)).
Pronunciation
Numeral
thousand (plural thousands)
Usage notes
Unlike cardinal numerals such as ten or ninety-nine (where one can say e.g. there were ten men present), the word thousand is a noun like dozen and needs a determiner or another numeral to function as a numeral: one cannot say *there were thousand men present, but must say:
- there were a thousand men / one thousand men / forty-three thousand men present
- one can also speak of the thousand men, several thousand men, or some thousand men who were present
- compare a dozen men / one dozen men / forty-three dozen men, the dozen men, several dozen men, some dozen men
When preceded by a determiner or numeral and followed by of, it can be singular or plural:
- two thousand of the inhabitants died, several thousand of the inhabitants fled
- many thousands of women marched
- "Aragorn should find some two thousands of those that he had gathered to him in the South; but Imrahil should find three and a half thousands; and Éomer five hundreds of the Rohirrim who were unhorsed but themselves warworthy." (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King)
When followed by of and not preceded by a determiner or numeral, it must be pluralized with -s: thousands of women protested, countless thousands of women voted, not *thousand of women.
Synonyms
- (numerical): a thousand, one thousand
Derived terms
See also
- Appendix:Words used as placeholders to count seconds
Descendants
- → Hawaiian: kaukani
Translations
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