thousand

[thou-zuhnd]

noun

plural

thousands ,

plural

thousand .

1. a cardinal number, 10 times 100.

2. a symbol for this number, as 1000 or M.

3. thousands. the numbers between 1000 and 999,999, as in referring to an amount of money.

   Property damage was in the thousands.

4. a great number or amount.

5. Also thousand's place

   1. (in a mixed number) the position of the fourth digit to the left of the decimal point.

   2. (in a whole number) the position of the fourth digit from the right.

adjective

1. amounting to 1000 in number.

thousand

/ ˈθaʊzənd /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100 See also number

2. a numeral, 1000, 10³, M, etc, representing this number

3. (often plural) a very large but unspecified number, amount, or quantity

   they are thousands of miles away

4. (plural) the numbers 2000–9999

   the price of the picture was in the thousands

5. the amount or quantity that is one hundred times greater than ten

6. something represented by, representing, or consisting of 1000 units

7. maths the position containing a digit representing that number followed by three zeros

   in 4760, 4 is in the thousand's place

determiner

1. 1. amounting to a thousand

      a thousand ships

   2. ( as pronoun )

      a thousand is hardly enough

2. amounting to 1000 times a particular scientific unit

Word History and Origins

Origin of thousand¹

before 900; Middle English; Old English thūsend; cognate with Dutch duizend, Old High German dūsunt, Old Norse thūsund, Gothic thūsindi

Word History and Origins

Origin of thousand¹

Old English thūsend; related to Old Saxon thūsind, Old High German thūsunt, Old Norse thūsund

Idioms and Phrases

see bat a thousand; by the dozen (thousand); one in a million (thousand); picture is worth a thousand words.

Example Sentences

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Sudan's civil war and forced some 13 million to flee their homes.

From BBC

"It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money," said Lee-Anne Mulholland, global head of regulatory affairs at Google.

From BBC

His administration has also cut government spending, firing thousands of government workers.

From BBC

Takahashi footed the bill to stage a cross-Pacific showdown between the two teams, hoping one day to own a Tokyo-based franchise — a cost of several hundred thousand dollars at the time, equivalent to millions today.

From Los Angeles Times

The burst of a thousand flash bulbs lit up the stadium.

From Los Angeles Times

When To Use

What does thousand mean?

A thousand is a number equal to 10 times 100. In numerals, it’s 1,000 or 1000.The word thousand is almost always preceded by the word a (as in a thousand, which means the same thing as 1,000) or by another number, as in two thousand (2,000), ten thousand (10,000), or nine hundred ninety-nine thousand (999,000).You wouldn’t say “I have thousand dollars”—you would say “I have a thousand dollars” or “I have one thousand dollars.”In the context of math, the range of numbers between 1,000 and 999,999 is called the thousands (just as the range between 100 and 999 is called the hundreds).In general, the plural form thousands typically refers to a large but unspecified number or amount somewhere in the thousands, as in The repairs will cost thousands of dollars. Generally, this means between 2,000 and 9,999. The term tens of thousands could be used for a higher amount (typically between 10,000 and 99,999). The phrase the thousands can also be used to refer to a large number or amount without giving the exact total, as in I don’t know how many people were at the concert, but it had to be in the thousands. Thousand and thousands are also often used to exaggerate the number or amount of something, as in I heard about a thousand excuses from my students today or I have thousands of things I need to get done. In Roman numerals, the number one thousand is represented by the letter M.Example: There must have been a thousand people playing in the park today.