Word.ws English Dictionary

they-uns

they-uns pronoun: they (third-person plural subject pronoun).

Pronoun

they-uns

  1. (Appalachia, Midwestern-US, US) They (third-person plural subject pronoun).
  2. (Appalachia, Midwestern-US, US) Them (third-person plural object pronoun).
    • […] 'only' (she said as if the thought had just struck her, and as if to herself) 'that would be burning up in part the property of one of we uns, as, thank God, the house don't belong to they uns.'1880, George Chittenden Benham, A Year of Wreck: A True Story, by a Victim, page 106
    • "I'd like mighty well to raise myself, and reach a helpin' hand down to they-uns below, but I sure ain't prepared to leave you sad and lonesome." She laughed — a laugh light as a child's. "Do I look sad?" she asked. "I'll be proud as a peacock ...1903, Emma Rayner, Handicapped Among the Free, page 7

Synonyms of they-uns

Forms of they-uns

alternative formthey'uns
alternative formtheyuns

Origin of they-uns

From they + uns, a form of ones representing an older pronunciation of it.

Questions about they-uns

What does they-uns mean?
They-uns means they (third-person plural subject pronoun).
What part of speech is they-uns?
They-uns is a pronoun.

Words near they-uns in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: they-uns (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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Cite this entry: “they-uns.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/they-uns. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.