thought
/θɔt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
cot caught merger/θɑt/
thought noun: a representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking. Also the simple past and past participle of think.
Noun
thought (countable and uncountable, plural thoughts)
- A representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.
- The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- I hate the thought of going back to work Monday morning.
- The operation by which mental activity arise or are manipulated; the process of thinking; the agency by which thinking is accomplished.
- Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.
- The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.a. 1983, Paul Fix (attributed quote)
- Synonyms:
- thinking
- A way of thinking (associated with a group, nation, region or idea).
- school of thought
- Traditional eastern thought differs markedly from that of the west.
- Anxiety, distress.
- Which of you by taking thought, can adde one cubite vnto his ſtature?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:27
- The careful consideration of multiple factors; deliberation.
- After much thought, I have decided to stay.
- Synonyms:
- cogitation, contemplation, deliberation, mulling, musing, pondering, meditation, reflection, rethinking, reconsideration
- A very small amount, distance, etc.; a whit or jot.
- 'Bide the night at Heriotside,' says he. 'It's a thought out of your way, but it's a comfortable bit.'1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
Also used as
thought is also the simple past and past participle of think.
thought meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
thought in Hindi
- representation created in the mind
- विचार vicār, चिंतन cintan, मनन manan
- process
- विचार vicār
thought in Tamil
- representation created in the mind
- எண்ணம் eṇṇam, நினைப்பு niṉaippu
- process
- எண்ணம் eṇṇam
- way of thinking
- எண்ணம் eṇṇam
thought in Marathi
- representation created in the mind
- विचार vicār
- process
- विचार vicār
thought in Urdu
- representation created in the mind
- وِچار vicār, فِکْر fikr
- process
- اَنْدیشَہ andeśa
More languagesFewer languages
- thought in Bengali
- চিন্তা cinta
- thought in Telugu
- ఆలోచన ālōcana, తలపు talapu
- thought in Malayalam
- ചിന്ത cinta, ആലോചന ālōcana
- thought in Kannada
- ವಿಚಾರ vicāra
- thought in Punjabi
- ਸੋਚਿਆ sociā
- thought in Gujarati
- વિચાર vicār
- thought in Odia
- ବିଚାର bicāra, ଚିନ୍ତା cintā
- thought in Sinhala
- කල්පනා kalpanā
- thought in Nepali
- सोचविचार socavicār
- thought in Pashto
- فکر fékər
- thought in Tagalog
- pag-iisip
- thought in Arabic
- فِكْر fikr, فِكْرَة fikra, تَفَكُّر tafakkur, تَفْكِير tafkīr
- thought in Malay
- fikiran, pemikiran
- thought in Indonesian
- pikir, fikir, pikiran
- thought in Thai
- ความคิด kwaam-kít
- thought in Vietnamese
- tư duy
- thought in Myanmar
- စိတ် cit, အကြံ a.kram
Examples of thought in a sentence
- In a democratic world you'd be able to say what you thought wherever you were.
- I thought you said you were above these kinds of antics.
- He canned the whole project because he thought it would fail.
Synonyms of thought
- thinking
- cogitation
- contemplation
- deliberation
- mulling
- musing
- pondering
- meditation
- reflection
- rethinking
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of thought
| plural | thoughts |
|---|---|
| alternative form (archaic) | thowt |
| alternative form (nonstandard) | thaught |
| alternative form (archaic) | thot |
Origin of thought
From Middle English thought, ithoȝt, from Old English þōht, ġeþōht, from Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht, from Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz, *gaþanhtą (“thought”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think”). Cognate with Scots thocht (“thought”), Saterland Frisian Toacht (“thought”), West Frisian dacht (“attention, regard, thought”), Dutch gedachte (“thought”), German Andacht (“reverence, devotion, prayer”), Icelandic þóttur (“thought”). Related to thank, think.
Words formed from thought
- aforethought
- afterthought
- bethought
- chain of thought
- collect one's thoughts
- counterthought
- food for thought
- forethought
- freedom of thought
- free thought
- gather one's thoughts
- give thought
- habit of thought
- have another thought coming
- hindthought
- hold that thought
- intrusive thought
- it's the thought that counts
- line of thought
- lost in thought
- merrythought
- metathought
- midthought
- misthought
- mode of thought
- mood-thought
- MTE
- nether thought
- netherthought
- nonthought
- on second thought
- on second thoughts
- overthought
- park that thought
- passthought
- penny for your thoughts
- perish the thought
- quick as thought
- school of thought
- second thought
- shower thought
- spare a thought for
- there's a thought
- thought balloon
- thought-bearing
- thought blocking
- thought broadcasting
- thought bubble
- thoughtcast
- thoughtcasting
- thought collective
- thought control
- thought-controlled
- thoughtcrime
- thought criminal
- thought echo
- thoughted
- thought experiment
- thought-form
- thoughtform
Phrases with thought
- thought of
- thought on
- thought up
- New Thought
- thought big
- thought out
- gave thought
- thought back
- thought cast
- thought good
- thought over
- thought path
87 more phrasesFewer phrases
- thought wave
- given thought
- gives thought
- thought about
- thought aloud
- thought casts
- thought paths
- thought piece
- thought twice
- thought waves
- giving thought
- Higher Thought
- thought leader
- thought pieces
- thought police
- thought reform
- thought shower
- thought bubbles
- thought leaders
- thought much of
- thought pattern
- thought process
- thought showers
- thought through
- wishful thought
- lines of thought
- modes of thought
- thought balloons
- thought out loud
- thought patterns
- thought straight
- train of thought
- chains of thought
- habits of thought
- held that thought
- thought blockings
- thought criminals
- thought little of
- thought processes
- thread of thought
- trains of thought
- holds that thought
- Mao Zedong Thought
- parks that thought
- schools of thought
- thought nothing of
- thought of England
- thought one was it
- threads of thought
- parked that thought
- thought collectives
- thought experiments
- thought for oneself
- holding that thought
- parking that thought
- spared a thought for
- spares a thought for
- thought the world of
- thought transference
- thought with portals
- now there's a thought
- sparing a thought for
- thought on one's feet
- thought of the children
- thought with one's dick
- I thought you'd never ask
- thought no end of oneself
- thought one hung the moon
- who would have thought it
- zombie thought experiment
- thought with one's little head
- lay back and thought of England
- thought one is God's own cousin
- thought one's shit didn't stink
- lain back and thought of England
- thought the world revolved around one
- shut one's eyes and thought of England
- closed one's eyes and thought of England
- thought the sun shone out of someone's ass
- thought the sun shined out of someone's ass
- thought the sun shone out of someone's arse
- thought the sun shone out of someone's butt
- thought the sun shined out of someone's arse
- thought the sun shined out of someone's butt
- thought all one's Christmases have come at once
- thought the sun shone out of someone's backside
- thought the sun shined out of someone's backside
Words that rhyme with thought
Questions about thought
- What does thought mean?
- Thought means a representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.
- What is thought in Hindi?
- Thought in Hindi is विचार (vicār), चिंतन (cintan), मनन (manan). See Thought meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is thought?
- Thought is a noun.
- How do you pronounce thought?
- Thought is pronounced /θɔt/.
- What is the plural of thought?
- The plural of thought is thoughts.
Words near thought in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thought (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-us-thought.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-thought.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-thought.wav.
Cite this entry: “thought.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thought. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.