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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

thread.

A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈθɹɛd/[ˈθɹʷɛd]
  1. A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.

  2. A piece of yarn, especially said of warps and wefts in a woven fabric.

  3. Any of various natural (as spiderweb, etc.) or manufactured filaments (as glass, plastic, metal, etc.).

    the threads of a spiderweb
  4. A slender stream of water.

    a thread of water
  5. The line midway between the banks of a stream.

  6. A screw thread.

  7. The continuing course of life; the thread of life.

  8. An ordered course, that which connects the successive points in a discourse. A line of reasoning, sequence of ideas, or train of thought.

    I’ve lost the thread of what you’re saying.
  9. An ordered course, that which connects the successive points in a discourse. A continuing theme that modifies the whole discourse.

    All of these essays have a common thread.
  10. A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.

  11. A series of posts or messages, consisting of an initial post and responses to it, generally relating to the same subject, on a newsgroup, Internet forum, or social media platform.

    Internet
  12. A sequence of connections.

  13. A precarious condition; something that which offers no real or otherwise perceived security.

    a life hanging by a thread
  14. The degree of fineness; quality; nature.

    figuratively · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English thred, þred, threed, from Old English þrǣd, from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-s, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”). Cognates Cognate with Yola dreade (“thread”), Saterland Frisian Träid (“thread, wire”), Cimbrian draat (“string, thread”), Dutch draad (“thread, wire”), German Draht (“thread, wire”), Luxembourgish Drot (“wire”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish tråd (“thread, wire”), Faroese tráður (“thread”), Icelandic þráður (“thread”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dredh (“twist, turn”). More at throw.

verb/ˈθɹɛd/[ˈθɹʷɛd]
  1. To pass a thread through the eye of a needle.

    transitive
  2. To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through; to string.

    transitive
  3. To make one's way through or between (a constriction or obstacles).

    figuratively · transitive
    to thread through narrow passages
    I think I can thread my way through here, but it’s going to be tight.
  4. To make one's way through or between (a constriction or obstacles). To cautiously make (one's way) through a precarious place or situation.

    figuratively · transitive
    He threaded his way through legal entanglements.
  5. To pass through; to pierce through; to penetrate.

    figuratively · transitive
  6. To interweave as if with thread; to intersperse.

    transitive
  7. To form a screw thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.).

    transitive
    to thread a bolt
  8. To remove (facial hair) by way of a looped thread that is tightly wound in the middle.

    ambitransitive
    to thread your eyebrows and trim them
  9. To feed (a sewing machine or otherwise a projecting or exposing mechanism, such as a projector, a camera, etc.) with film.

    ambitransitive
  10. To pass (a film or tape) through a projector, recorder, etc. so as to correct its path.

    transitive
  11. Of boiling syrup: To form a threadlike stream when poured from a spoon.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English thred, þred, threed, from Old English þrǣd, from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-s, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”). Cognates Cognate with Yola dreade (“thread”), Saterland Frisian Träid (“thread, wire”), Cimbrian draat (“string, thread”), Dutch draad (“thread, wire”), German Draht (“thread, wire”), Luxembourgish Drot (“wire”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish tråd (“thread, wire”), Faroese tráður (“thread”), Icelandic þráður (“thread”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dredh (“twist, turn”). More at throw.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.