through

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

English

Alternative forms

• thoo (eye dialect)
• thorough (archaic outside of compounds)
• thorow (obsolete)
• thro' (chiefly archaic or poetic)
• throughe (obsolete)
• thru (informal, US)
• thrue (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From Middle English thrugh, thruch, thruh, metathetic variants of thurgh, thurh, from Old English þurh, from Proto-Germanic *þurhw (“through”), from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂kʷe, suffixed zero-grade from *terh₂- (“to pass through”) + *-kʷe (“and”). Cognate with Scots throch (“through”), West Frisian troch (“through”), German durch (“through”), Dutch door (“through”), Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌷 (þairh, “through”), Latin trans (“across, over, through”), Albanian tërthor (“through, around”), Welsh tra (“through”). See also thorough.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thro͞o
• (Received Pronunciation, Canada) IPA^(key): /θɹuː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /θɹu/
• Rhymes: -uː
• Hyphenation: through
• Homophones: threw, thru

Preposition

through

1. From one side of an opening to the other.
2. Entering, then later leaving.
3. Surrounded by (while moving).
4. By means of.
5. In consequence of; as a result of.
6. During a period of time; throughout

7. (Canada, US) To (or up to) and including, with all intermediate values.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

through (not comparable)

1. Passing from one side of something to the other.
2. Finished; complete.

3. Without a future; done for.

4. No longer interested; wearied or turned off by experience.
5. Proceeding from origin to destination without delay due to change of equipment.
6. (soccer) In possession of the ball beyond the last line of defence but not necessarily the goalkeeper; through on goal.
7. (chiefly UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, rare in Canada) (usually followed by "to") to achieve success in an exam, competition, etc. and progress to the next stage or a higher level.

Derived terms

Adverb

through (not comparable)

1. From one side to the other by way of the interior.

2. From one end to the other.

3. Throughout something; all the way across or into.

4. To the end.

5. From beginning to end.

6. Out into the open.

Derived terms

See Category:English phrasal verbs with particle (through)

Noun

through (plural throughs)

1. A large slab of stone laid in a dry-stone wall from one side to the other; a perpend.

Translations

References

• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Bounded landmarks", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

Etymology 2

From Middle English thrugh, þrouȝ, throgh, from Old English þrūh (“trough, conduit, pipe; box, chest; coffin, tomb”), from Proto-Germanic *þrūhs (“excavated trunk, trough”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₃u- (“to rub, turn, drill, bore”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θɹʌf/, /θɹuː/
• Rhymes: -ʌf, -uː
• Hyphenation: through

Noun

through (plural throughs)

1. (obsolete) A coffin, sarcophagus or tomb of stone; a large slab of stone laid on a tomb.