Word.ws English Dictionary

thumbsucker

thumbsucker noun: someone who sucks their thumb.

Noun

thumbsucker (plural thumbsuckers)

  1. Someone who sucks their thumb.
  2. (US, slang) A piece of serious journalism that explains the background of current events and interprets them in a manner comforting to the intended readers.

Forms of thumbsucker

pluralthumbsuckers

Origin of thumbsucker

From thumb + sucker, suggesting the ignorance of a thumb-sucking child who needs things explained.

Questions about thumbsucker

What does thumbsucker mean?
Thumbsucker means someone who sucks their thumb.
What part of speech is thumbsucker?
Thumbsucker is a noun.
What is the plural of thumbsucker?
The plural of thumbsucker is thumbsuckers.

Words near thumbsucker in the dictionary

  1. thumbstalls
  2. thumbstick
  3. thumbsticks
  4. thumbstroke
  5. thumbstrokes
  6. thumbsucker
  7. thumbsuckers
  8. thumbsucking
  9. thumbtack
  10. thumbtacked
  11. thumbtacking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thumbsucker (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-au-thumbsucker.ogg.

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