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.

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.
   • 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.