these
/ðiːz//ðiz/
these is the plural of this.
Meaning of this
Determiner
this (plural these)
- The (thing) here (used in indicating something or someone nearby).
- This classroom is where I learned to read and write.
- Referring to oneself.
- Hey, you know what's got two thumbs and really likes brownies? This guy!1999, “Garage Sale”, in That '70s Show, season 2, episode 1, spoken by Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher)
- The known (thing) (used in indicating something or someone just mentioned).
- They give the appearance of knowing what they're doing. It's this appearance that lets them get away with so much.
- The known (thing) (used in indicating something or someone about to be mentioned).
- When asked what he wanted for his birthday, he gave this reply: “[…]”
- A known (thing) (used in first mentioning a person or thing that the speaker does not think is known to the audience). Compare with “a certain ...”.
- I met this woman the other day who's allergic to wheat. I didn't even know that was possible!
- Designates the current or next instance.
- It's cold this morning.
Origin of these
From Middle English þes, from Old English þas, from Proto-West Germanic *þes-, a form of Proto-Germanic *sa (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *só. Compare with German diese.
Words formed from these
- between you and me and these four walls
- if these walls could talk
- one of these days
- one of these odd-come-shortlies
- these days
- these islands
- theseness
- these ones
- these things happen
- with friends like these who needs enemies
Phrases with these
Words that rhyme with these
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- wheeze
- Cantonese
- chemise
- miner's disease
- trapeze
- Congolese
- dees
- disease
- displease
- frieze
- Japanese
- Keyes
- leese
- overseas
- pease
- please
- Portuguese
- sneeze
- tweeze
- appease
- bes
- bez
- blue cheese
- botanese
- Burmese
- expertise
- fries
- greeze
- Guyanese
- he's
- Javanese
- keys
- legalese
- Louise
- Maltese
- Ningbonese
- octopodes
- Pekingese
- Shanghainese
- she's
- Sinhalese
- Socrates
- tees
- Versaillese
- Viennese
- Vietnamese
- a little bit of bread and no cheese
- academese
Questions about these
- What is these the plural of?
- These is the plural of this.
- How do you pronounce these?
- These is pronounced /ðiːz/ (UK).
Words near these in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: these (page history and authors); this (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-These.wav, en-us-these.ogg.
Cite this entry: “these.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/these. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.