thin-slice
thin-slice verb: to make quick inferences about something through thin-slicing.
Verb
thin-slice (third-person singular simple present thin-slices, present participle thin-slicing, simple past and past participle thin-sliced)
- To make quick inferences about something through thin-slicing.
- If you've ever changed seats on a train or crossed the road to avoid someone, because there was something "not quite right about them", you've used your ability to thin-slice. […] but we thin-slice people in all kinds of situations, not just when we feel threatened.2009 March 7, Rosie Ifould, “Acting on impulse”, in The Guardian
- Of course, first impressions are critical in any context, but especially when there's a potential relationship on the line[…]. That's because humans have a natural desire to "thin slice"—as in, digest small amounts of information (like, what's in your bio) to determine bigger decisions (read...2023 March 6, Alexis Jones, Megan Schaltegger, “These Tinder Conversation Starters Actually Work, According To Dating Experts”, in Women's Health
Forms of thin-slice
| third-person singular present | thin-slices |
|---|---|
| present participle | thin-slicing |
| past participle | thin-sliced |
| past | thin-sliced |
Origin of thin-slice
Back-formation from thin-slicing.
Questions about thin-slice
- What does thin-slice mean?
- Thin-slice means to make quick inferences about something through thin-slicing.
- What part of speech is thin-slice?
- Thin-slice is a verb.
- What is the past tense of thin-slice?
- The past tense of thin-slice is thin-sliced.
Words near thin-slice in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thin-slice (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: “thin-slice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thin-slice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.