they
/ˈðeɪ̯/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 6.50 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
pron
A group of entities previously mentioned.
pron
A single person, previously mentioned, whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary.
pron
A single person, previously mentioned, whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary.
pron
People; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker.
pron
The authorities, the (power) elites, the powers that be, the establishment, the man, the system: government, police, employers, etc.
pron
The opponents of the side which is keeping score.
det
The, those.
det
Their.
American usage
Example Sentences
- "Fred and Jane? They just arrived."
- "Dogs may bark if they want to be fed."
- "Plants wilt if they are not watered."
- "I have a car and a truck, but they are both broken."
- "But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; And they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; And they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away"
- "[…]purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout ſuſpition, no doubt to their equall ioy and contentment."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tóy Proto-Germanic *þai Proto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛁᛉ (*þaiʀ) Old Norse þeirbor. Middle English þei English they From Middle English þei, borrowed in the 1200s from Old Norse þeir, plural of the demonstrative sá which acted as a plural pronoun. Displaced native Middle English he from Old English hīe — which vowel changes had left indistinct from he (“he”) — by the 1400s, being readily incorporated alongside native words beginning with the same sound (the, that, this). Used as a singular pronoun since 1300, e.g. in the 1325 Cursor Mundi. The Norse term (whence also Icelandic þeir (“they”), Faroese teir (“they”), Danish de (“they”), Swedish de (“they”), Norwegian Nynorsk dei (“they”)) is from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”) (from Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”)), whence also Old English þā (“those”) (whence obsolete English tho), Scots thae, thai, thay (“they; those”), Swabian dia (“they”). The origin of the determiner they (“the, those”) is unclear. The OED, English Dialect Dictionary and Middle English Dictionary define it and its Middle English predecessor thei as a demonstrative determiner or adjective meaning “those” or “the”. This could be a continuation of the use of the English pronoun they's Old Norse etymon þeir as a demonstrative meaning “those”, but the OED and EDD say it is limited to southern, especially southwestern, England, specifically outside the region of Norse contact.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: þei, þeir, *þai, *só
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈðeɪ̯/
- British English: /ˈðeɪ̯/
Usage
- American usage
- Transitive verb
- Derogatory
- Informal
- Offensive
Inflected Forms
them (objective)
their (possessive)
theirs (noun, possessive)
themselves (reflexive)
themself (reflexive, singular)
dey (alternative)
thay (alternative)
theye (alternative)
thaay (alternative)
the (alternative)
theys (present, singular)
theying (participle, present)