thousand
Americannoun
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thousands,
plural
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thousand
plural
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a cardinal number, 10 times 100.
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a symbol for this number, as 1000 or M.
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thousands. the numbers between 1000 and 999,999, as in referring to an amount of money.
Property damage was in the thousands.
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a great number or amount.
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Also thousand's place
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(in a mixed number) the position of the fourth digit to the left of the decimal point.
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(in a whole number) the position of the fourth digit from the right.
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adjective
noun
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the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100 See also number
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a numeral, 1000, 10³, M, etc, representing this number
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(often plural) a very large but unspecified number, amount, or quantity
they are thousands of miles away
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(plural) the numbers 2000–9999
the price of the picture was in the thousands
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the amount or quantity that is one hundred times greater than ten
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something represented by, representing, or consisting of 1000 units
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maths the position containing a digit representing that number followed by three zeros
in 4760, 4 is in the thousand's place
determiner
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amounting to a thousand
a thousand ships
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( as pronoun )
a thousand is hardly enough
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amounting to 1000 times a particular scientific unit
Usage
What does thousand mean? A thousand is a number equal to 10 times 100. In numerals, it’s 1,000 or 1000. The word thousand is almost always preceded by the word a (as in a thousand, which means the same thing as 1,000) or by another number, as in two thousand (2,000), ten thousand (10,000), or nine hundred ninety-nine thousand (999,000). You wouldn’t say “I have thousand dollars”—you would say “I have a thousand dollars” or “I have one thousand dollars.”In the context of math, the range of numbers between 1,000 and 999,999 is called the thousands (just as the range between 100 and 999 is called the hundreds). In general, the plural form thousands typically refers to a large but unspecified number or amount somewhere in the thousands, as in The repairs will cost thousands of dollars. Generally, this means between 2,000 and 9,999. The term tens of thousands could be used for a higher amount (typically between 10,000 and 99,999). The phrase the thousands can also be used to refer to a large number or amount without giving the exact total, as in I don’t know how many people were at the concert, but it had to be in the thousands. Thousand and thousands are also often used to exaggerate the number or amount of something, as in I heard about a thousand excuses from my students today or I have thousands of things I need to get done. In Roman numerals, the number one thousand is represented by the letter M. Example: There must have been a thousand people playing in the park today.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of thousand
before 900; Middle English; Old English thūsend; cognate with Dutch duizend, Old High German dūsunt, Old Norse thūsund, Gothic thūsindi
Vocabulary lists containing thousand
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A thousand federal election monitors caused little fuss.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
This echoes a warning from Poundland founder Steve Smith on Monday that two or three thousand suppliers to the firm, which only work for Poundland, would be directly affected by its collapse.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
"I have students who are sitting the baccalaureate at the end of the year, and several hundred thousand of them haven't attended classes for four or five weeks," he said.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
A few thousand years from now, it will be something else.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
A thousand little birds pecking at my brains.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Authorities expect 500,000 to 700,000 demonstrators to join marches, with tens of thousands more in Paris alone, in a day billed by one union leader as "a great day of convergence".
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
But she did speak to thousands of supporters and appeared to believe her victory was inevitable.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Though California’s $4.25-trillion economy remains a global powerhouse, and a major draw for investments in AI and aerospace, thousands of businesses have moved to Texas and other states in recent years due to lower costs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
This checklist could save you thousands of dollars.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
Since an earthquake killed thousands in the city of Kobe in 1995, the nation had spent sixteen years reinforcing bridges, reconstructing old buildings with earthquake-resistant technology, and creating earthquake warning systems.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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