Word.ws English Dictionary

they/them

UK/ˈðeɪˌðɛm/

they/them noun: a non-binary person; one who uses gender-neutral pronouns.

Noun

they/them (plural they/thems)

  1. (Internet, derogatory, offensive, sometimes) A non-binary person; one who uses gender-neutral pronouns.
    • I've long used videogames as a means to cope with both my disability and my dysphoria, but Baldur's Gate 3 is the first time I've been able to really get into roleplaying a they/them causing mayhem.2023 September 10, Nova Smith, “Baldur's Gate 3 is the first game that met me halfway in roleplaying a they/them causing mayhem, and that feels like the future of RPGs”, in PC Gamer
    • The individual straight cises whom I work with are pretty nice for the most part. Still, people (mostly my boomer coworkers) often misgender other people (mostly the younger they/thems) at my office and bristle when corrected.2024 May 1, Emily Gould, quoting Mx. Vanilla, “‘Help! Our DEI Trainer Won’t Stop Talking About Kink’”, in The Cut

Verb

they/them (third-person singular simple present they/thems, present participle they/themming, simple past and past participle they/themmed or they/them'd)

  1. (transitive) To refer to (someone) using gender-neutral pronouns.
    • As per the old Jewish joke “ask two Jews, get three opinions”, there’s room on this seven-strong bill (plus [Hannah] Gadsby) for at least that many different perspectives on gender – including some impish scepticism from Canadian comic DeAnne Smith, who complains about “getting they/them’d against...2023 October 13, Brian Logan, “‘We’re all learning’: why Netflix needs Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda”, in The Guardian

Examples of they/them in a sentence

  • In case you were wondering, "Shakespeare's They/Thems" turned out to be Rosalind and Viola.2024, Colby Gordon, quoting Folger Shakespeare Library, Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature, University of Chicago...
  • Now testosterone has deepened his voice and his journey has reached its final stage – from they/them to he/him.2026 April 18, Alex Needham, “Kae Tempest on creativity and his gender transition: ‘I’m just glad to be alive’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms of they/them

Noun
pluralthey/thems
Verb
third-person singular presentthey/thems
present participlethey/themming
past participlethey/themmed
pastthey/themmed
past participlethey/them'd
pastthey/them'd

Origin of they/them

From a common format for specifying gender-neutral pronouns in online profiles.

Words formed from they/them

Questions about they/them

What does they/them mean?
They/them means a non-binary person; one who uses gender-neutral pronouns.
How do you use they/them in a sentence?
In case you were wondering, "Shakespeare's They/Thems" turned out to be Rosalind and Viola.
What part of speech is they/them?
They/them can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce they/them?
They/them is pronounced /ˈðeɪˌðɛm/ (UK).
What is the plural of they/them?
The plural of they/them is they/thems.

Words near they/them in the dictionary

  1. they're only after one thing
  2. they's
  3. they'uns
  4. they've
  5. they-uns
  6. they/them
  7. they/them'd
  8. they/themmed
  9. they/themming
  10. they/thems
  11. theybies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: they/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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-they-them.wav.

Cite this entry: “they/them.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/they%2Fthem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.