Word.ws English Dictionary

thymus

/ˈθaɪ.məs/

thymus is the ellipsis of thymus gland.

Meaning of thymus gland

Noun

thymus gland (plural thymus glands)

  1. A ductless gland, consisting mainly of lymphatic tissue, located behind the top of the breastbone. It is most active during puberty, after which it shrinks in size. It plays an important role in the development of the immune system and produces lymphocytes.

Forms of thymus

pluralthymuses
pluralthymi

Origin of thymus

From New Latin thymus, from Ancient Greek θύμος (thúmos, “warty excrescence, (also, as used by Galen) thymus gland”).

Words formed from thymus

Phrases with thymus

Words that rhyme with thymus

Questions about thymus

What is thymus the ellipsis of?
Thymus is the ellipsis of thymus gland.
How do you pronounce thymus?
Thymus is pronounced /ˈθaɪ.məs/ (UK).

Words near thymus in the dictionary

  1. thymotic acids
  2. thymotoxic
  3. thymotrinan
  4. thymotropic
  5. thymoxamine
  6. thymus
  7. thymus gland
  8. thymus glands
  9. thymuses
  10. thymy
  11. thyne

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thymus (page history and authors); thymus gland (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-thymus.wav.

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