Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

thin blue line

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.35 in modern English

Syllables: thin blue -line
IPA

17

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Colloquial

noun

A flag or symbol representing the police, commonly associated with the blue lives matter movement.

Example Sentences

"Crime wave overwhelms thin blue line [title]"
"It followed dire warnings from the police staff associations that the possible loss of up to 40,000 police jobs would mean “Christmas coming early” for criminals, and the “thin blue line” left too stretched to cope with the inevitable risk of social and industrial unrest."
"“Obviously, you’ve seen caravans with the Trump flag in the back of pickup trucks and then the thin blue line,” Mr. DeMasi, a former police officer, said. “I think maybe people had a good intention, but it ended up giving the meaning of the thin blue line a black eye.”"

Etymology

By analogy with Thin Red Line. “Blue” refers to the color of the uniforms of many police departments.

Usage

Colloquial

Subject

Wiktionary places this term in Law.

Inflected Forms

the thin blue line (canonical)

Phrases

blue flu blue line green line red line single yellow line Thin Red Line

Frequently Paired Words

blue flu blue line green line red line single yellow line Thin Red Line

Questions

What does thin blue line mean?: The police.
Where does thin blue line come from?: By analogy with Thin Red Line. “Blue” refers to the color of the uniforms of many police departments.

How to pronounce thin blue line

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “thin blue line”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “thin blue line”.
Repeat and practice — Say “thin blue line” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.