thereabouts

Syllables: there·a·boutsUK/ðɛəɹəˈbaʊts//ˈðɛɹəˌbaʊts/

thereabouts adverb: about or near that place.

Adverb

thereabouts (not comparable)

About or near that place.
- [W]e reſolv'd to put into a ſmall River, which however had a Depth enough of Water for us, and to ſee if we could, either over Land, or by the Ship's Pinnace, come to know what Ships were in any Port thereabouts.1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 266
- Quite a few minutes would be spun out, for instance, at the smallish town of Chirk, but to me the dalliance was generally worthwhile, except in wet weather, because of the increasing beauty of the wooded hill scenery thereabouts.1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 18
About or around that date or time.
- We ſtay'd by it a quarter of an Hour or thereabouts, 'till the Powder in the Eyes, and Mouth, and Ears of the Idol blew up; and we could perceive had ſplit and deform'd the Shape; […]1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 338
About or near to that condition or quality.
Approximately that number or quantity.
- Fiue or ſix thouſand horſe I ſed, I will ſay true, or thereabouts ſet downe, for Ile ſpeake truth.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
(obsolete) About that; concerning that.
(figuratively, obsolete) Near to that activity or situation.
- Cam. [i.e., Canidus.] Our Fortune on the Sea is out of breath,
  And ſinkes moſt lamentably. Had our Generall
  Bin what he knew himſelfe, it had gone well:
  Oh his [i.e., he] ha's giuen example for our flight,
  Moſt groſſely by his owne.
  Eno[barbus]. I, are you thereabouts? Why then goodnight indeede.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- Cam[illo]. I dare not know (my Lord.)
  Pol[ixenes]. How, dare not? doe not? doe you know, and dare not?
  Be intelligent to me, 'tis thereabouts:
  For to your ſelfe, what you doe know, you muſt,
  And cannot ſay, you dare not.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Noun

thereabouts pl (plural only)

(plural, plural-only, possibly erroneous) Location; whereabouts.
- True, he had stopped at Langston Bucket by chance, and there was no reason why Mr. Boke should theorise as to his thereabouts.1905, Robert Ernest Vernède, The Pursuit of Mr. Faviel, page 89
- My companions are not far off, and are aware of my thereabouts.2014, Dave Duncan, The Stricken Field

thereabouts meaning in Malayalam and Kannada

thereabouts in Malayalam

near there, around there: അതിനടുത്ത്, ആ സ്ഥലത്തിനടുത്ത്, ആസ്ഥലത്തിനെ ചുറ്റിപ്പറ്റി, അവിടെ അടുത്ത്
approximately, or so, give or take a bit: ഏകദേശം, ഏറെക്കുറെ, ഏതാണ്ട്, സുമാർ, അതിനോടടുപ്പിച്ച്, അടുപ്പിച്ച്

Origin of thereabouts

The adverb is derived from Middle English there-aboutes, þare aboutes (“of a place or an object: around there, in its vicinity; of time: about then, around that time”) [and other forms], from ther (“in that place, in those places, there; on that; thither, to that place; from there, thence; at that time; thereupon; in that situation, under those circumstances; in that case, with regard to that”) (from Old English þǣr (“there”)) + aboutes (“in all directions, around”, adverb), aboutes (“in all directions from, on all sides of; near; concerned with”, preposition) (from aboute, abouten (“so as to surround; so as to cover; on the border or edge; as measured around the outside; to as to travel around something; so as to revolve about an axis or centre; aside; in all directions; in the vicinity; in connection with something; in several places; everywhere, throughout; to all or everyone; almost, approximately; concerning; in succession; so as to be or happen”, adverb), aboute, abouten (“surrounding; covering; over; upon; on the border of; in all directions; in the vicinity of, near to; in several places; everywhere, throughout; almost, approximately; concerning; engaged in; on behalf of”...

Questions about thereabouts

What does thereabouts mean?: Thereabouts means about or near that place.
What is thereabouts in Malayalam?: Thereabouts in Malayalam is അതിനടുത്ത്, ആ സ്ഥലത്തിനടുത്ത്, ആസ്ഥലത്തിനെ ചുറ്റിപ്പറ്റി. See Thereabouts meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is thereabouts?: Thereabouts can be an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce thereabouts?: Thereabouts is pronounced /ðɛəɹəˈbaʊts/ (UK).

Words near thereabouts in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: thereabouts (page history and authors); thereabouts (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); thereabouts (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

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

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