Word.ws English Dictionary

gold in them thar hills

gold in them thar hills noun: an opportunity for something to be profitable or beneficial.

Noun

gold in them thar hills (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) An opportunity for something to be profitable or beneficial.
    • There really is gold in them thar hills. During the 2000 election cycle, zip-code areas on average yielded slightly more than $35,000 in political contributions, while residents of Beverly Hills, 90210, ponied up slightly more than $6.2 million.2004 September, Eric Alterman, “The Hollywood Campaign”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 08 Oct 2018
    • I think there's gold in them thar hills if we get the chance.2018 September 28, Ed Gross, “Gal Gadot To Star In A Remake Of Agatha Christie's Murder Mystery 'Death On The Nile'”, in Closer Weekly, archived from the original on 08 Oct 2018
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see gold, in, them thar, hills.

Origin of gold in them thar hills

Originally used in the phrase there’s gold in them thar hills, possibly a misquote of the phrase there’s millions in it (viz. the North Georgia mountains) uttered in Mark Twain's novel The American Claimant (1892) by Colonel Mulberry Sellers, a character thought to be based on Dahlonega Mint assayer M. F. Stephenson.

Questions about gold in them thar hills

What does gold in them thar hills mean?
Gold in them thar hills means an opportunity for something to be profitable or beneficial.
What part of speech is gold in them thar hills?
Gold in them thar hills is a noun.

Words near gold in them thar hills in the dictionary

  1. gold hatband
  2. gold hatbands
  3. Gold Hill
  4. gold hunger
  5. gold hydrazide
  6. gold in them thar hills
  7. gold is where you find it
  8. gold leaf
  9. gold lilies
  10. gold lily
  11. gold lip

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gold in them thar hills (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-gold in them thar hills.ogg.

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