thought

English Online Dictionary. What means thought‎? What does thought mean?

English

Alternative forms

• thowt (archaic)
• thaught (nonstandard)
• thot (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English thought, ithoȝt, from Old English þōht, ġeþōht, from Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht, from Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz, *gaþanhtą (“thought”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think”). Cognate with Scots thocht (“thought”), Saterland Frisian Toacht (“thought”), West Frisian dacht (“attention, regard, thought”), Dutch gedachte (“thought”), German Andacht (“reverence, devotion, prayer”), Icelandic þóttur (“thought”). Related to thank, think.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thôt
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /θɔːt/, (Standard Southern British) [θoːt]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /θɔt/
  • (Inland Northern American) IPA^(key): [θɒ(ː)t]
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /θɑt/
  • Homophone: thot
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [θɒ(ː)t], [θɔ(ː)t]
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /θoːt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːt

Noun

thought (countable and uncountable, plural thoughts)

1. (countable) Representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.
2. (uncountable) The operation by which mental activity arise or are manipulated; the process of thinking; the agency by which thinking is accomplished.

   Synonym: thinking (noun)

   Coordinate terms: cognition, cogitation (loosely synonymous); emotion, feelings

   • a. 1983, Paul Fix (attributed quote)

     The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.

   • 2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Ch.1, at p.14, 15:

     What has been especially striking in recent decades, however, is the rise of new outlooks challenging the very idea of a nucleated (if evasive) inner personal identity. [...] We don't think our thoughts, they think us; we are but the bearers of discourses, our selves are discursive constructs. Within such frames of analysis, any notion of the ascent of selfhood is but idle teleological myth, a humanist hagiography.

3. (countable) A way of thinking (associated with a group, nation or region).

4. (uncountable, now dialectal) Anxiety, distress.
5. (uncountable) The careful consideration of multiple factors; deliberation.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:consideration

6. A very small amount, distance, etc.; a whit or jot.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

thought

1. simple past and past participle of think

Middle English

Alternative forms

• thoughte, thougt, thouhte, thoute
• thogt, thohte, thogh

Etymology

From Old English þōht, from Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht, from Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θɔu̯xt/, /θɔxt/

Noun

thought (plural thoughtes)

1. product of mental activity

Descendants

• English: thought
• Scots: thocht
• Yola: thaugkt

References

• “thought, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.