Thule

/ˈθjuːliː/US/ˈtuːliː/

Thule proper noun: the semi-legendary island of classical antiquity considered to represent the northernmost location in the inhabited world (the Ecumene).

Proper noun (1)

Thule

The semi-legendary island of classical antiquity considered to represent the northernmost location in the inhabited world (the Ecumene).
- I have reached these lands but newly // From an ultimate dim Thule.1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe II (1859), “Dream-Land”, page 41, first stanza, lines 5–6
- For distant India tremble may // Beneath your mighty rule, // And Thulé⁵ bow beneath your sway // Far in the Northern sea, // But if to care and want you’re prey, // No king are you, but slave.1969, V.E. Watts (translator), Boëthius (author), The Consolation of Philosophy, bk III, ch. v, page 89
(historical) A nationalist and occultist group in Germany in the early 20th century, which included some of the founding members of the Nazi Party.
The historical Eskimo culture extending from Alaska to Greenland between the 6th and 14th centuries.
A settlement in northwestern Greenland established in 1910 by the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen.
An air base built on the site in the 1940s.
A locality in the Murray River council area, southern New South Wales, Australia.

Proper noun (2)

Thule

The smaller lobe of the trans-Neptunian object Ultima Thule, a contact binary object.
- For the purposes of discussion, MU₆₉’s larger and smaller lobes have been informally designated “Ultima” and “Thule,” respectively, by the New Horizons team. Ultima and Thule have best-fit measured diameters of ~19.5 and ~14.2km, respectively, with errors of only a few percent at this time.2019 January 24, Stern, S. A., J. R. Spencer, H. A. Weaver, C. B. Olkin, J. M. Moore, W. Grundy, R. Gladstone et al., “Overview of initial results from the reconnaissance flyby of a Kuiper Belt...
- Ultima and Thule have similar colors with measured albedos ∼0.06, indicating that UT is a typical member of the Cold Classical Kuiper Belt class of objects.2020, Umurhan, O. M., J. T. Keane, R. A. Beyer, M. Bird, I. Linscott, S. B. Porter, J. R. Spencer et al., “Thermophysical, Gravitational, and Geomorphology Properties of 2014 MU69”, in Abstracts of...

Thule meaning in Marathi and Persian

Thule in Marathi

legendary island in the far north: थूले thūle, थ्यूली thyūlī

Thule in Persian

legendary island in the far north: ثولی sūlī

Forms of Thule

alternative form	Thulé, Thulê, Thulē, Thūlē, Tule [17ᵗʰ C.]
alternative form	Thyle [17ᵗʰ C.]
alternative form	Thylé
alternative form	Thoule
alternative form	Thoulê

Origin of Thule

From Classical Latin Thūlē, Thȳlē, from Ancient Greek Θούλη (Thoúlē), Θῡ́λη (Thū́lē), of unknown origin, cognate with Middle English Tīle, Tȳle, from Old English Thȳle, Thīla, Thīle (variants of Þȳle) and Medieval Latin Tīle.

Clipping of Ultima Thule. Coined in January 2019 by the NASA team investigators of the New Horizons program (see quotations below).

Words formed from Thule

Questions about Thule

What does Thule mean?: Thule means the semi-legendary island of classical antiquity considered to represent the northernmost location in the inhabited world (the Ecumene).
What is Thule in Marathi?: Thule in Marathi is थूले (thūle), थ्यूली (thyūlī). See Thule meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is Thule?: Thule is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Thule?: Thule is pronounced /ˈθjuːliː/ (UK).

Words near Thule in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Thule (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-Thule.wav.

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