thousand

Translingual

Etymology

From English thousand.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊˈzænd/

• Audio (NATO)

  (file)

Noun

thousand

1. (international standards) NATO, ICAO, ITU & IMO radiotelephony clear code (spelling-alphabet name) for thousand.

Usage notes

Used when reciting distances (including altitudes), but not for serial numbers. That is, a serial number 10946 would be read simply as its digits: one zero nine four six.

References

English

Alternative forms

• Arabic numerals: 1000 (see for numerical forms in other scripts)
• Roman numerals: M
• ISO prefix: kilo-
• Exponential notation: 10³

Etymology

From Middle English thousend, thusand, from Old English þūsend (“thousand”), from Proto-West Germanic *þūsundi, from Proto-Germanic *þūsundī (“thousand”), (compare Scots thousand (“thousand”), Saterland Frisian duusend (“thousand”), West Frisian tûzen (“thousand”), Dutch duizend (“thousand”), German tausend (“thousand”), Danish tusind (“thousand”), Swedish tusen (“thousand”), Norwegian tusen (“thousand”), Icelandic þúsund (“thousand”), Faroese túsund (“thousand”)), from Proto-Indo-European *tuHsont-, *tuHsenti- (compare Lithuanian tūkstantis (“thousand”), Polish tysiąc, Russian ты́сяча (týsjača), Finnish tuhat, Estonian tuhat).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθaʊz(ə)nd/
• (General American) enPR: thou′zənd, IPA^(key): /ˈθaʊz(ə)n(d)/,

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: thou‧sand

Numeral

thousand (plural thousands)

1. A numerical value equal to 1,000 = 10 × 100 = 10³ (1 E+3 exactly—in scientific E notation.)

   The company earned fifty thousand dollars last month.

   Many thousands of people came to the conference.

Usage notes

Unlike cardinal numerals such as ten or ninety-nine (where one can say e.g. there were ten men present), the word thousand is a noun like dozen and needs a determiner or another numeral to function as a numeral: one cannot say *there were thousand men present, but must say:

• there were a thousand men / one thousand men / forty-three thousand men present
• one can also speak of the thousand men, several thousand men, or some thousand men who were present
• compare a dozen men / one dozen men / forty-three dozen men, the dozen men, several dozen men, some dozen men

When preceded by a determiner or numeral and followed by of, it can be singular or plural:

• two thousand of the inhabitants died, several thousand of the inhabitants fled
• many thousands of women marched
• "Aragorn should find some two thousands of those that he had gathered to him in the South; but Imrahil should find three and a half thousands; and Éomer five hundreds of the Rohirrim who were unhorsed but themselves warworthy." (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King)

When followed by of and not preceded by a determiner or numeral, it must be pluralized with -s: thousands of women protested, countless thousands of women voted, not *thousand of women.

In Malaysian English, 1100, 1200, and other numbers combining a thousand and hundreds are known as thousand one, thousand two, thousand three, and so on.

Synonyms

• (numerical): nillion, illion, one thousand, one nillion, one illion, a thousand, a nillion, an illion

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Hawaiian: kaukani, tausani

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Words used as placeholders to count seconds

Anagrams

• handouts, hands out

Middle English

Numeral

thousand

1. Alternative form of thousend

Adjective

thousand

1. Alternative form of thousend

Scots

Alternative forms

• thoosan, thoosand, thousant

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English thousand, from Old English þūsend, from Proto-West Germanic *þūsundi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθuzɪnd/, /ˈθuzənd/

Numeral

thousand

1. thousand

Usage notes

Used with "a" in the same way as English to denote 1000.