Word.ws English Dictionary

merrythought

/ˈmɛɹɪθɔːt/

merrythought noun: the wishbone or furcula.

Noun

merrythought (plural merrythoughts)

  1. (archaic) The wishbone or furcula.
    • One puts yᵉ merrithought on his nose (slightly) like a paire of spectacles, and shakes his head till he shakes it off his nose.1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 93
    • All Birds want the Channel-bones in the Breast, instead whereof they have a bone, which we call the Merry thought.1688, Randle Holme, The Academy of Armory, Chester, Book 2, Chapter 13, p. 307

Forms of merrythought

pluralmerrythoughts

Origin of merrythought

From merry + thought, traditionally explained with reference to the pleasant thoughts imagined when the bone is ritually broken.

Questions about merrythought

What does merrythought mean?
Merrythought means the wishbone or furcula.
What part of speech is merrythought?
Merrythought is a noun.
How do you pronounce merrythought?
Merrythought is pronounced /ˈmɛɹɪθɔːt/.
What is the plural of merrythought?
The plural of merrythought is merrythoughts.

Words near merrythought in the dictionary

  1. merryman
  2. Merrymans
  3. merrymeeting
  4. merrymeetings
  5. merrymen
  6. merrythought
  7. merrythoughts
  8. Merryville
  9. Merryweather
  10. Merryweathers
  11. mers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: merrythought (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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