English Explanatory Dictionary

thread

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
  2. A piece of yarn, especially said of warps and wefts in a woven fabric.
  3. Any of various natural (as spiderweb, etc.) or manufactured filaments (as glass, plastic, metal, etc.).
  4. A slender stream of water.
  5. The line midway between the banks of a stream.
  6. A screw thread.
  7. The continuing course of life; the thread of life.
  8. An ordered course, that which connects the successive points in a discourse.
  9. A line of reasoning, sequence of ideas, or train of thought.
  10. A continuing theme that modifies the whole discourse.
  11. A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.
  12. A series of posts or messages, consisting of an initial post and responses to it, generally relating to the same subject, on a newsgroup, Internet forum, or social media platform.
verb
  1. To pass a thread through the eye of a needle.
  2. To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through; to string.
  3. To make one's way through or between (a constriction or obstacles).
  4. To cautiously make (one's way) through a precarious place or situation.
  5. To pass through; to pierce through; to penetrate.
  6. To interweave as if with thread; to intersperse.
  7. To form a screw thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.).
  8. To remove (facial hair) by way of a looped thread that is tightly wound in the middle.
  9. To feed (a sewing machine or otherwise a projecting or exposing mechanism, such as a projector, a camera, etc.) with film.
  10. To pass (a film or tape) through a projector, recorder, etc. so as to correct its path.
  11. Of boiling syrup: To form a threadlike stream when poured from a spoon.

Pronunciation

/θɹɛd/ [θɾ̪̊ɛd] en-us-thread.ogg

Word forms

thread threads thred thrid threed threading threaded thridden

Etymology

From Middle English thred, þred, threed, from Old English þrǣd, from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-s, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”). Cognates Cognate with Yola dreade (“thread”), Saterland Frisian Träid (“thread, wire”), Cimbrian draat (“string, thread”), Dutch draad (“thread, wire”), German Draht (“thread, wire”), Luxembourgish Drot (“wire”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish tråd (“thread, wire”), Faroese tráður (“thread”), Icelandic þráður (“thread”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dredh (“twist, turn”). More at throw.

Synonyms

string topic

Derived words

Abalakov thread brahminical thread golden thread green thread hang by a thread hang on by a thread hyperthreaded life thread lose the thread needle-and-thread grass nun's thread Pagenstecher thread pick up the threads pick up the threads of sister's thread threadbare thread bug thread count threader thread lace thread-legged bug thread-locking fluid thread mode thread necromancy thread needle thread of life thread of thought thread-paper thread pool threadsafe thread-safe thread snake thready cross-thread threaded multithreaded thread the needle

Translations

Bulgarian: прому́швам Bulgarian: прому́ша Bulgarian: промъ́квам Bulgarian: промъ́кна Chinese Mandarin: 穿梭 Dutch: passeren voorbij gaan Finnish: pujotella French: filer German: passieren German: durchkommen German: durchfädeln German: bahnen Portuguese: enfiar Spanish: pasar Swedish: träda Swedish: passera
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