thy
/ˈðaɪ̯/
thy is the possessive form of thou.
Meaning of thou
Verb
thou (third-person singular simple present thous, present participle thouing, simple past and past participle thoued)
- To address (a person) using the pronoun thou, especially as an expression of contempt or familiarity.
- Don’t thou them as thous thee! – a Yorkshire English admonition to overly familiar children
- To use the word thou.
- The hardcore role-players will wake up one day feeling, like a dead weight on their chest, the strain of endless texting in Renaissance Faire English—yet dutifully go on theeing and thouing all the same.2006, Julian Dibbell, chapter 5, in Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN
Conjunction
thy
- Only used in for thy, for-thy, which is an alternative form of forthy (“because, therefore”).
- For-thy it round and hollow shaped was, Like to the world itselfe, and seem'd aworld of glass.1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
- Wallace knew well the Englishmen would flee, For thy he thrusted in the thickest to be, Hewing full fast on whomsoever he fought, Against his dint fine steel availed nought.1713, Robert Sanders, transl., The Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace
Determiner capitalized: Thy
Thy
- Honorific alternative letter-case form of thy, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.
Synonyms of thy
Origin of thy
From Middle English þi, apocopated variant of þin, from Old English þīn, from Proto-West Germanic *þīn, from Proto-Germanic *þīnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *téynos (“thy; thine”), from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (“thou”). See thou.
Words formed from thy
Phrases with thy
Words that rhyme with thy
Questions about thy
- What does thy mean?
- Thy means only used in for thy, for-thy, which is an alternative form of forthy (“because, therefore”).
- What is thy the possessive form of?
- Thy is the possessive form of thou.
- What part of speech is thy?
- Thy can be a conjunction or a determiner.
- How do you pronounce thy?
- Thy is pronounced /ˈðaɪ̯/.
Words near thy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thy (page history and authors); Thy (page history and authors); thou (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-us-thy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “thy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
