Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

thursday

/ˈθɝz.deɪ/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.62 in modern English

Syllables
Thurs-day
IPA
/ˈθɝz.deɪ/
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The fifth day of the week in many religious traditions, and the fourth day of the week in systems using the ISO 8601 norm; it follows Wednesday and precedes Friday.

adv

On Thursday.

Canadian usage; American usage; Informal

Example Sentences

Etymology

From Middle English Thursday, Thuresday, from Old English þursdæġ, þuresdæġ (“Thursday”), possibly from a contraction of þunresdæġ (“Thursday”, literally “Thor's day”), or of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse þórsdagr; all from Proto-West Germanic *Þunras dag (“day of the thunder god”). Compare West Frisian tongersdei, German Low German Dunnersdag, Dutch donderdag, German Donnerstag, Danish torsdag. More at thunder, day. A calque of Latin diēs Iovis (diēs Jovis), via an association (interpretātiō germānica) of the god Thor with the Roman god of thunder Jove (Jupiter).

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: *dʰegʷʰ-, Thursday, þursdæġ, -, þórsdagr, *Þunras dag

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˈθɝz.deɪ/
  • British English: /ˈθɜːz.deɪ/

Usage

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

Phrases

Frequently Paired Words

Thursday Dinners Thursday Island

Synonyms

Questions

How do you pronounce thursday?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈθɝz.deɪ/.
What does thursday mean?
The fifth day of the week in many religious traditions, and the fourth day of the week in systems using the ISO 8601 norm; it follows Wednesday and precedes Friday.
Where does thursday come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce thursday

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “thursday”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈθɝz.deɪ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “thursday”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “thursday” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.