themselves

English

Etymology

Morphologically them +‎ -selves.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ðɛmˈsɛlvz/, /ðəmˈsɛlvz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: them‧selves
• Rhymes: -ɛlvz

Pronoun

themselves (third-person, reflexive of they)

1. (reflexive) The reflexive case of they, the third-person plural personal pronoun. The group of people, animals, or objects previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).

   (reflexively):

   They’ve hurt themselves.

   (after a preposition):

   They fought among themselves.

   (for emphasis):

   They are going to try climbing Mount Everest themselves.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

2. (reflexive) The reflexive case of they, the third-person singular personal pronoun. The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).

   (reflexively):

   Would whoever stole my phone please make themselves known.

   (after a preposition):

   I don't want anyone to fight among themselves.

   (for emphasis):

   Everyone must do it themselves.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Philippians 2:3:

     Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 18:

     In fact she was so busy doing all the things that anyone might, who finds themselves alone in an empty house, that she did not notice at first when it began to turn dusk and the rooms to grow dim.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:themselves.

Usage notes

• Regarding the use of singular themselves (as opposed to themself or e.g. himself), see the usage notes about they, themself, and he, respectively.

Synonyms

• 'emselves (colloquial)
• theirselves (nonstandard)
• (singular): themself (non-gender-specific), theirself (non-gender-specific, but nonstandard), himself, herself (gender-specific)

Translations

See also