thrush

/θɹʌʃ/

thrush noun: any of numerous species of songbirds of the cosmopolitan family Turdidae, such as the song thrush, mistle thrush, bluebird, and American robin.

Image: William H. Stipps, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

thrush (plural thrushes)

Any of numerous species of songbirds of the cosmopolitan family Turdidae, such as the song thrush, mistle thrush, bluebird, and American robin.
- I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281
(US, colloquial) A female singer.

Noun (2)

thrush (plural thrushes)

A fungal infection caused by species of genus Candida, affecting the mouth or vagina; candidiasis.
- Cervical cancer and recurrent vaginal thrush are both strongly linked to the presence of HIV in women.1991 August 24, Dawn Schmitz, “AIDS Redefined In 1992?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 6, page 6
Synonyms:

candidiasis

Proper noun capitalized: Thrush

Thrush (plural Thrushes)

A surname transferred from the nickname.

thrush meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Tagalog and Arabic

thrush in Tamil

பாடும் வகைக் குருவி, சிறந்த பாடகி, அக்கரநோய், குதிரைக் காலடி நடுவீக்கம், குதிரைப் பின்னங்கால் புண், குளம்புப்புண்

thrush in Tagalog

one of several species of songbirds of the family Turdidae: pipit-tulog

thrush in Arabic

one of several species of songbirds of the family Turdidae: دُجّ dujj

Examples of thrush in a sentence

Thrush, a monilia infection of the inside of the mouth, is common.
Consider the cold-eyed thrush, that springy carnivore of lawns, worm stabber, basher to death of snails.
The most potent cause of thrush is exposure of the frogs to filth and damp.

All 16 example sentences with thrush

Synonyms of thrush

candidiasis

Forms of thrush

Noun
plural	thrushes
Proper noun
plural	Thrushes

Plural of thrush: thrushes

Origin of thrush

From Middle English thrusche, þrusch, þresche, from a combination of Old English þrysċe (from Proto-Germanic *þruskijǭ, a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *þruskō) and Old English þræsċe (from Proto-Germanic *þrauskǭ and/or *þrastuz); all from Proto-Indo-European *trosdos (“thrush”). Cognate with German Drossel, Old Norse þrǫstr, Latin turdus, Lithuanian strazdas (“thrush”), Middle Irish truid, Welsh drudwy (“starling”), Old Church Slavonic дрозгъ (drozgŭ), Russian дрозд (drozd).

Uncertain, though likely not related to the "bird" sense of Etymology 1; perhaps compare Icelandic þröstur, Danish torsk, Norwegian trøske. Perhaps also related to Old French fourchette (“frog of a horse's hoof”).

English surname from the noun thrush.

Words formed from thrush

Phrases with thrush

Words that rhyme with thrush

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about thrush

What does thrush mean?: Thrush means any of numerous species of songbirds of the cosmopolitan family Turdidae, such as the song thrush, mistle thrush, bluebird, and American robin.
What is thrush in Tamil?: Thrush in Tamil is பாடும் வகைக் குருவி, சிறந்த பாடகி, அக்கரநோய். See Thrush meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is thrush?: Thrush can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce thrush?: Thrush is pronounced /θɹʌʃ/.
What is the plural of thrush?: The plural of thrush is thrushes.

Words near thrush in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: thrush (page history and authors); Thrush (page history and authors); thrush (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); thrush (Urdu Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thrush.wav.

Cite this entry: “thrush.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thrush. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.