Word.ws English Dictionary

them

/ˈðɛm/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

nonstandard[ˈðʌm]

them pronoun: used as the direct object of a verb.

Pronoun

them (third-person, personal pronoun, objective case of they)

  1. (in plural, personal, pronoun, third-person) Used as the direct object of a verb.
    • She treated them for a cold.
    • Proponents of adding a gender-neutral option to state identification documents say it would remove a form of discrimination against nonbinary people by providing them with the means to carry identification that matches their identity.2019 May 29, Amy Harmon, “Which Box Do You Check? Some States Are Offering a Nonbinary Option”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2019
  2. (in plural, personal, pronoun, third-person) Used as the indirect object of a verb.
    • She wrote them a letter.
  3. (in plural, personal, pronoun, third-person) Used as the object of a preposition.
    • Give it to them.
  4. (colloquial, in plural, nonstandard, personal, pronoun, third-person) As a grammatical subject or object when joined with a conjunction.
    • [...] and now them and the Goo Goo Dolls are playing together.
    • […]Illinois, told Christina Holmes Tillson (just arrived from Connecticut herself) : “I am getting skeery about them 'ere Yankees. There is such a power of them coming in that them and the Injuns will squatch out [everyone else].2006 September 27, David Ress, Governor Edward Coles and the Vote to Forbid Slavery in Illinois, 1823-1824, McFarland, →ISBN, page 64
  5. (in plural, personal, pronoun, third-person) Used in isolation or apposition, or (sometimes proscribed) as the complement of the copula (be).
    • Who was there? —Them.
    • Who did this? —Them. They did it. (or:) It was them. They did it.)
  6. (personal, pronoun, singular, third-person, occasionally proscribed) Used as the direct object of a verb.
    • If a student has an inappropriate question, whatever you do, do not berate them.
    • If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, […] [t]hen shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 17:2–5
  7. (personal, pronoun, singular, third-person, occasionally proscribed) Used as the indirect object of a verb.
    • If one of my patients calls, please bring them their dinner.
  8. (personal, pronoun, singular, third-person, occasionally proscribed) Used as the object of a preposition.
    • If someone comes and asks for the ticket, just give it to them.
    • Each adolescent girl with ASD has needs specific to her because each of them has variable characteristics and different degrees of sensory and perceptual difficulties.2024 July 2, Rukiye Arslan, Derya Yanık, Raziye Pekşen Akça, “Investigation of Menstrual Hygiene and Self-Care Skills of Adolescent Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mother Views”, in Journal of...
  9. (colloquial, nonstandard, personal, pronoun, singular, third-person) As a grammatical subject or object when joined with a conjunction.
    • "[…] he said that everybody was being watched, and if they seen anybody giving Union cards to anybody on Company property, that them and the person receiving the card, they would both be fired.1969, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 82
  10. (personal, pronoun, singular, third-person, occasionally proscribed) Used in isolation or apposition, or (sometimes proscribed) as the complement of the copula (be).
    • Who was there? —Them.
    • Who did this? —Them. They did it. (or:) It was them. They did it.)
  11. (dialectal, personal, pronoun, third-person, informal set phrases) They or those.
    • I know it seems unfair, but them's the rules.
    • And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.1611, King James Bible

Noun

them (plural thems)

  1. (uncommon) Synonym of they (“a non-binary person”).
    Synonyms:
    they

Determiner

them

  1. (dialectal) Those.
    • Gimme two of them yellow ones.
    • How would you like a scrummage, Andy, with them Scotchmen that stole your mother's chickens this morning?1835, John Pendleton Kennedy, Horse Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency

them meaning in Arabic, Indonesian and Myanmar

them in Arabic

third personal plural pronoun used after a preposition or as the object of a verb
ـهُم -hum, ـهُنَّ -hunna, ـهُمَا -humā, إِيَّاهُم ʔiyyāhum, إِيَّاهُنَّ ʔiyyāhunna, إيَّاهُمَا ʔiyyāhumā

them in Indonesian

third personal plural pronoun used after a preposition or as the object of a verb
mereka

them in Myanmar

third personal plural pronoun used after a preposition or as the object of a verb
သူတို့ sutui., သူများ su-mya:

Examples of them in a sentence

  • Who did that? —(It was) not them: I was watching them the whole time.
  • Them and the boys went to live with Auntie Madge and Uncle Herbie when Miss Violet died.2021 June 10, Yvonne Bailey-Smith, The Day I Fell Off My Island, Myriad Editions, →ISBN:
  • Someone in the crowd around the lifts called sycophantically, ‘Morning, Yaxley!’ Yaxley ignored them.2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, London: Bloomsbury, 2008, →ISBN, page 270:
  • ‘Ah - them was the days,’ Windy murmured, and slid two bob across the bar.1960, J. E. Macdonnell, Don't Gimme the Ships, Melbourne: Horwitz Publications, page 25:
  • The world 'as got me snouted jist a treat; / Crool Forchin's dirty left 'as smote me soul. / An' all them joys o' life I 'eld so sweet / Is up the pole.1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:

All 40 example sentences with them

Synonyms of them

All synonyms of them

Forms of them

Pronoun
objectiveof they
alternative form (nonstandard)dem
Noun
pluralthems

Origin of them

From Middle English þem, from Old Norse þeim.

Phrases with them

44 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with them

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about them

What does them mean?
Them means used as the direct object of a verb.
What is them in Arabic?
Them in Arabic is ـهُم (-hum), ـهُنَّ (-hunna), ـهُمَا (-humā). See Them meaning in Arabic.
How do you use them in a sentence?
Who did that? —(It was) not them: I was watching them the whole time.
What part of speech is them?
Them can be a pronoun, a noun or a determiner.
How do you pronounce them?
Them is pronounced /ˈðɛm/.

Words near them in the dictionary

  1. thelypody
  2. thelypteridaceous
  3. thelytokous
  4. thelytokously
  5. thelytoky
  6. them
  7. them 'un
  8. them all
  9. them ones
  10. them thar
  11. them that has gets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: them (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-them.ogg.

Cite this entry: “them.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/them. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.