thorn
/θɔːn//θoɹn/
thorn noun: a modified branch that is hard and sharp like a spike.
Noun
thorn (plural thorns)
- A modified branch that is hard and sharp like a spike.
- Any thorn-like structure on plants, such as the spine and the prickle.
- On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961...
- Any shrub or small tree that bears thorns, especially a hawthorn.
- the white thorn
- the cockspur thorn
- That which pricks or annoys; anything troublesome.
- There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 12:7
- The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, / Be only mine.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- A letter of Latin script (capital: Þ, small: þ), borrowed from the futhark; today used only in Icelandic to represent the voiceless dental fricative, but originally used in several early Germanic scripts, including Old English where it represented the dental fricatives that are today written th (Old English did not have phonemic voicing distinctions for fricatives).
- In Old English manuscripts thorn and eth did not have different phonetic values but were used positionally[.]1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 175
- See also Etymology of ye (definite article).
Verb
thorn (third-person singular simple present thorns, present participle thorning, simple past and past participle thorned)
- To pierce with, or as if with, a thorn (sharp pointed object).
- […] human nature is, above all things, lazy, and needs to be thorned and goaded up those heights where it ought to fly.1869, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Old Town Folks
- Even Judge Bradley's callused sentiments were thorned by the narration of Jaclyn's journals.2003, Scott D. Zachary, Scorn This, page 175
Proper noun capitalized: Thorn
Thorn
- A topographic surname from Middle English for someone living near a thorn bush.
- A hamlet in Houghton Regis parish, Central Bedfordshire district, Bedfordshire, England (OS grid ref TL0024).
- A village in Maasgouw municipality, Limburg province, Netherlands.
- An unincorporated community in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, United States.
- Former name of Whitethorn, Humboldt County, California.
thorn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
thorn in Hindi
- sharp protective structure of a plant
- काँटा kā̃ṭā
thorn in Tamil
- முள்
thorn in Marathi
- sharp protective structure of a plant
- कंटक kaṇṭak, काटा kāṭā
thorn in Urdu
- sharp protective structure of a plant
- کانٹا kā̃ṭā
More languagesFewer languages
- thorn in Bengali
- কাঁটা kãṭa
- thorn in Telugu
- ముల్లు mullu, కంటకము kaṇṭakamu
- thorn in Malayalam
- മുള്ള് muḷḷŭ
- thorn in Kannada
- ಮುಳ್ಳು muḷḷu
- thorn in Punjabi
- ਕੰਡਾ kaṇḍā, ਖਿੱਤੀ khittī, ਸੂਲ਼ sūḷ
- thorn in Gujarati
- કાંટો kā̃ṭo
- thorn in Odia
- କଣ୍ଟା kaṇṭā
- thorn in Sanskrit
- कण्टक kaṇṭaka
- thorn in Sinhala
- කටුව kaṭuwa
- thorn in Assamese
- কাঁইট kãit, কঁটা kõta
- thorn in Pashto
- اغزی aγzai
- thorn in Tagalog
- tinik
- thorn in Arabic
- أَسَلَة ʔasala, شَوْكَة šawka
- thorn in Malay
- duri
- thorn in Indonesian
- duri
- thorn in Persian
- خار xâr, غاژ ġaž
- thorn in Thai
- หนาม nǎam
- thorn in Vietnamese
- gai
- thorn in Myanmar
- ဆူး hcu:
Examples of thorn in a sentence
- There's no way I'm going through the thorn bushes dressed like this!
- The second decade of the Rosary concerns the Sorrowful mysteries, such as the crucifixion and the crowning with thorns.
- The isabelline (or Daurian) shrike is a greyish-yellow and hunts from prominent perches, impaling the corpses on thorns as a larder.
Forms of thorn
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | thorns |
| alternative form | þorn |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | thorns |
| present participle | thorning |
| past participle | thorned |
| past | thorned |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Thorne |
Origin of thorn
From Middle English thorn, þorn, from Old English þorn, from Proto-West Germanic *þorn, from Proto-Germanic *þurnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥nós, from *(s)ter- (“stiff”). Cognates Near cognates include West Frisian toarn, Low German Doorn, Dutch doorn, German Dorn, Danish and Norwegian torn, Swedish torn, törne, Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌿𐍃 (þaurnus). Further cognates include Old Church Slavonic трънъ (trŭnŭ, “thorn”), Russian тёрн (tjorn), Polish cierń, Kamkata-viri taňi, tai (“thorn”), Sanskrit तृण (tṛ́ṇa, “grass”).
Words formed from thorn
- bastard umbrella thorn
- bethorned
- blackthorn
- boxthorn
- buckthorn
- buffalo thorn
- camelthorn
- Christ's thorn
- crucifixion thorn
- desert-thorn
- Egyptian thorn
- every rose has a thorn
- every rose has its thorn
- fairy thorn
- firethorn
- garland thorn
- giraffe thorn
- Glastonbury thorn
- goat's thorn
- hookthorn
- Jerusalem thorn
- Karoo thorn
- knobthorn
- maythorn
- monkey thorn
- Mysore thorn
- no rose without a thorn
- Osage thorn
- sandthorn
- September thorn
- sweet thorn
- thorn apple
- thorn-apple crystal
- thornback
- thornbill
- thornbird
- thorn broom
- thornbush
- thorn cluster
- thorn devil
- thornen
- thornery
- thornfish
- thorn forest
- thornhead
- thornhog
- thorn hopper
- thorn in one's side
- thorn in someone's side
- thorn in the flesh
- thornless
- thornlet
- thornlike
- thorn plum
- thornproof
- thorntail
- Thornton
- thorn tree
- thorn-tree
- thornveld
Phrases with thorn
Words that rhyme with thorn
Questions about thorn
- What does thorn mean?
- Thorn means a modified branch that is hard and sharp like a spike.
- What is thorn in Hindi?
- Thorn in Hindi is काँटा (kā̃ṭā). See Thorn meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is thorn?
- Thorn can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce thorn?
- Thorn is pronounced /θɔːn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of thorn?
- The plural of thorn is thorns.
Words near thorn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thorn (page history and authors); Thorn (page history and authors); thorn (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); কাঁটা (Bengali) (page history and authors); മുള്ള് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಮುಳ್ಳು (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਕੰਡਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); કાંટો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); କଣ୍ଟା (Odia) (page history and authors); කටුව (Sinhala) (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: en-uk-thorn.ogg, en-us-thorn.ogg.
Cite this entry: “thorn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thorn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.