Word.ws English Dictionary

thumbtack

/ˈθʌm.tæk/

thumbtack noun: a small nail-like tack with a slightly rounded head that can be pressed into place with light pressure from the thumb; used for hanging light articles on a wall or noticeboard.

thumbtack: a small nail-like tack with a slightly rounded head that can be pressed into place with light...
Image: User John Dalton on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

thumbtack (plural thumbtacks)

  1. (Canada, US) A small nail-like tack with a slightly rounded head that can be pressed into place with light pressure from the thumb; used for hanging light articles on a wall or noticeboard.
    • You say that I'm broke my nigga, how is that?
      Bitch I'm stickin to this paper like a thumbtack2016 June 10, BlocBoy JB, “No Chorus, Pt. 5”, in Who Am I, 1:20–1:27
    Synonyms:
    drawing pin

Verb

thumbtack (third-person singular simple present thumbtacks, present participle thumbtacking, simple past and past participle thumbtacked)

  1. (transitive) To fix or attach something with a thumbtack.
    • On the particle-board partition that separated his cubicle from the next, Paul had thumbtacked things that might inspire him […]1988, Edmund White, chapter 1, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994

thumbtack meaning in Arabic, Malay, Indonesian and Persian

thumbtack in Arabic

nail-like tack
دَبُّوس dabbūs

thumbtack in Malay

nail-like tack
paku jari

thumbtack in Indonesian

nail-like tack
paku payung

thumbtack in Persian

nail-like tack
پونِز punez
More languagesFewer languages
thumbtack in Thai
หมุดหัวแบน

Synonyms of thumbtack

Forms of thumbtack

Noun
pluralthumbtacks
Verb
third-person singular presentthumbtacks
present participlethumbtacking
past participlethumbtacked
pastthumbtacked

Origin of thumbtack

From thumb + tack.

Questions about thumbtack

What does thumbtack mean?
Thumbtack means a small nail-like tack with a slightly rounded head that can be pressed into place with light pressure from the thumb; used for hanging light articles on a wall or noticeboard.
What is thumbtack in Arabic?
Thumbtack in Arabic is دَبُّوس (dabbūs). See Thumbtack meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is thumbtack?
Thumbtack can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce thumbtack?
Thumbtack is pronounced /ˈθʌm.tæk/.
What is the plural of thumbtack?
The plural of thumbtack is thumbtacks.

Words near thumbtack in the dictionary

  1. thumbstroke
  2. thumbstrokes
  3. thumbsucker
  4. thumbsuckers
  5. thumbsucking
  6. thumbtack
  7. thumbtacked
  8. thumbtacking
  9. thumbtacks
  10. thumbtip
  11. thumbtips

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thumbtack (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thumbtack.wav.

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