Word.ws English Dictionary

thumbs up

thumbs up noun: a gesture signifying approval or okay; a thumb pointing up out of a fist.

thumbs up: a gesture signifying approval or okay; a thumb pointing up out of a fist
Image: Manfidza, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

thumbs up (plural thumbs ups or thumbs up)

  1. A gesture signifying approval or okay; a thumb pointing up out of a fist.
    • He smiled and gave a big thumbs up.
    Antonyms:
    thumbs down
  2. (figuratively) An approval or OK.
    • We got the thumbs up to go ahead with the project.
    Antonyms:
    thumbs down

thumbs up meaning in Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada

thumbs up in Hindi

a gesture signifying approval or okay
जयकार jaykār, विजयोत्सव vijyotsav

thumbs up in Malayalam

seal of approval, approval, endorsement
അംഗീകാരത്ത അടയാളം, അനുമതി നൽകൽ, സമ്മത അടയാളം, അംഗീകാരം, അംഗീകരണം, ഇണ്ടാസ്

thumbs up in Kannada

ಹೆಬ್ಬೆರಳೊಪ್ಪಿಗೆ, ಜಯಕಾರ, ವಿಜಯೋತ್ಸಾಹ, ಮೆಚ್ಚಿಗೆಯ ಸೂಚನೆ

Antonyms of thumbs up

Forms of thumbs up

pluralthumbs ups
pluralthumbs up
alternative formthumbs-up
alternative formthumb up
alternative formthumb-up

Origin of thumbs up

Said to refer to the signal of approval or disapproval used by spectators at a Roman amphitheatre, but the directions have been reversed, and the Roman gesture was a bent thumb.

Words formed from thumbs up

Questions about thumbs up

What does thumbs up mean?
Thumbs up means a gesture signifying approval or okay; a thumb pointing up out of a fist.
What is thumbs up in Hindi?
Thumbs up in Hindi is जयकार (jaykār), विजयोत्सव (vijyotsav). See Thumbs up meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is thumbs up?
Thumbs up is a noun.
What is the plural of thumbs up?
The plural of thumbs up is thumbs ups.

Words near thumbs up in the dictionary

  1. thumbs downs
  2. thumbs on the scale
  3. thumbs on the scales
  4. thumbs one's nose
  5. thumbs through
  6. thumbs up
  7. thumbs up, seven up
  8. thumbs ups
  9. thumbs-down
  10. thumbs-downed
  11. thumbs-downing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thumbs up (page history and authors); thumbs up (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); thumbs up (Kannada 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:

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