Alternative forms

• thred (obsolete), thrid (obsolete), threed (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#THREADCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#THREAD thred, þred, threed, from Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#THREADCategory:English terms derived from Old English#THREAD þrǣd, from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#THREADCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#THREAD *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European#THREADCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#THREAD *treh₁-tu-s, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θɹɛd/Category:English 1-syllable words#THREADCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#THREAD
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [θɾ̪̊ɛd]Category:English terms with IPA pronunciation#THREAD

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#THREAD
• Rhymes: -ɛdCategory:Rhymes:English/ɛd#THREADCategory:Rhymes:English/ɛd/1 syllable#THREAD
• Hyphenation: thread

Noun

thread (plural threads)Category:English lemmas#THREADCategory:English nouns#THREADCategory:English countable nouns#THREADCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#THREADCategory:Pages with entries#THREADCategory:Pages with 4 entries#THREAD

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

   Synonym: string

   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 234:

     Woolen threads were an occult means, according to the Roman poet Horace, of depriving a person of virility.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

2. (weavingCategory:en:Weaving#THREAD) 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 spiderwebCategory:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

4. A slender stream of water.

   a thread of waterCategory:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

5. The line midway between the banks of a stream.
6. (engineeringCategory:en:Engineering#THREAD) 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.
   1. A line of reasoning, sequence of ideas, or train of thought.

      I’ve lost the thread of what you’re saying.Category:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

      • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII:

        I was pondering these things, when an incident, and a somewhat unexpected one, broke the thread of my musings.

        Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

      • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 21:

        ‘Let him go on. Do not interrupt him. He cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all if once he lost the thread of his thought.’

        Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   2. A continuing theme that modifies the whole discourse.

      Synonym: topic

      All of these essays have a common thread.Category:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

9. (computingCategory:en:Computing#THREAD) A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.
11. (InternetCategory:en:Internet#THREAD) 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.
12. A sequence of connections.
13. A precarious condition; something that which offers no real or otherwise perceived security.

    a life hanging by a threadCategory:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

14. (figurative, obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#THREAD) The degree of fineness; quality; nature.
    • 1632 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “The Magnetick Lady: Or, Humors Reconcil’d. A Comedy […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London: […] Richard Meighen, published 1640, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

      A neat courtier, / Of a most elegant thread.

      Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

Verb

thread (third-person singular simple present threads, present participle threading, simple past threaded or (archaic) thrid, past participle threaded or (archaic) thrid or (archaic) thridden)Category:English lemmas#THREADCategory:English verbs#THREADCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#THREADCategory:Pages with entries#THREADCategory:Pages with 4 entries#THREAD

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREAD) To pass a thread through the eye of a needle.
3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREAD) To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through; to string.
4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREAD, figurative) To make one's way through or between (a constriction or obstacles).

   to thread through narrow passagesCategory:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

   I think I can thread my way through here, but it’s going to be tight.Category:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

   • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 266:

     The line to Uganda goes up the side of a slope in a series of S-bends, and as the telegraph wires follow the line, from below they look like a forest as they thread backwards and forwards about six times.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   • 2013 October 19, Ben Smith, “Manchester United 1-1 Southampton”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Picking the ball up in his own half, Januzaj threaded a 40-yard pass into the path of Rooney to slice Southampton open in the blink of an eye.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   1. To cautiously make (one's way) through a precarious place or situation.

      He threaded his way through legal entanglements.Category:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

5. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREAD, figurative) To pass through; to pierce through; to penetrate.
   • 1670, John Pettus, Fodinæ Regales […], London: Printed by H. L. and R. B. […], page 2:

     And when the Miners by theſe Shafts or Adits do ſtrike or threed a Vein of any Metal […] then the Metal which is digged […] is called Oar […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   • 1896 May 12, The Pall Mall Magazine, page 12:

     Tom out here will have leave to thrid you with bullets.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   • 1899, Bernard Capes, chapter 16, in Lady of Darkness, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, page 122:

     Only the swifts were alert and busy, flashing, poising, diving under the eaves; thridding Ned's brain as they passed with a receding sound like that made by pebbles hopping over ice.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   • 1961 February, D. Bertram, “The lines to Wetherby and their traffic”, in Trains Illustrated, page 101:

     On the descent the line is often in cuttings; some are high, such as at Scarcroft, where a cut through firestone and fireclay was necessary, and near Bardsey, where the line threads a deep tree-lined gorge.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

6. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREAD) To interweave as if with thread; to intersperse.
   • 2010 April 1, Gayla Marty, Memory of Trees: A Daughter’s Story of a Family Farm, U of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 177:

     [...] the urban landscape threaded with parks and trees to the horizon. The enormous sky over that flat line dazzled clear blue or filled with towers of cumulus clouds.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   • 2014 June 30, G.B. Lindsey, Diana Copland, Libby Drew, Secrets of Neverwood: An Anthology, Carina Press, →ISBN:

     [...] dark hair threaded with gray pulled back from a face still beautiful in spite of clear evidence of the passage of time.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   • 2021 November 4, Steven Mithen, Land of the Ilich: Journey's into Islay's Past, Birlinn Ltd, →ISBN:

     [...] landscape threaded with rivers, roads, tracks, pathways and an airport runway; one peppered with villages, farms, crofts and distilleries. Visitors to Islay, especially those coming from densely populated urban areas, often mistakenly […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

   • 2023 May 2, Lucy Clarke, One of the Girls, Penguin, →ISBN, page 6:

     [...] dark hair threaded with early silver.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THREAD

7. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREAD) To form a screw thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.).

   Coordinate term: tap

   to thread a boltCategory:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

9. (ambitransitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREADCategory:English intransitive verbs#THREAD) To remove (facial hair) by way of a looped thread that is tightly wound in the middle.

   to thread your eyebrows and trim them

   Category:English terms with usage examples#THREAD

10. (ambitransitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREADCategory:English intransitive verbs#THREAD) To feed (a sewing machine or otherwise a projecting or exposing mechanism, such as a projector, a camera, etc.) with film. [(usually) with up]
11. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THREAD) To pass (a film or tape) through a projector, recorder, etc. so as to correct its path.
12. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#THREAD) Of boiling syrup: To form a threadlike stream when poured from a spoon.

See also

• sewing needle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• “thread, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “thread, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “twine, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000: “Thread or string composed of two or more yarns or strands twisted together […]”
• Philip Babcock Gove et al., editors (1961), “thread n”, in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged [...], volume III: S to Z, Merriam-Webster Inc., →ISBN, page 2381; republished Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1993, →ISBN
• Philip Babcock Gove et al., editors (1961), “thread v”, in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged [...], volume III: S to Z, Merriam-Webster Inc., →ISBN, page 2381; republished Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1993, →ISBN
• “thread, v.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present: “to form a thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.)”
• “thread, v.”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN: “To remove (body hair) by using a looped thread that has been wound tightly in the middle.”

Anagrams

• dearth, Theard, hatred, dareth, red hat, hetdar, Dehart

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:French terms borrowed from English#THREADCategory:French terms derived from English#THREAD thread.

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /tʁɛd/Category:French 1-syllable words#THREADCategory:French terms with IPA pronunciation#THREAD
• (France) IPA^(key): /sʁɛd/Category:French 1-syllable words#THREADCategory:French terms with IPA pronunciation#THREAD

Noun

thread m (plural threads)Category:French lemmas#THREADCategory:French nouns#THREADCategory:French countable nouns#THREADCategory:French entries with incorrect language header#THREADCategory:French masculine nouns#THREADCategory:Pages with entries#THREADCategory:Pages with 4 entries#THREAD

1. (anglicism, computingCategory:fr:Computing#THREAD) thread
2. (anglicism, InternetCategory:fr:Internet#THREAD) thread

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:Italian terms borrowed from English#THREADCategory:Italian terms derived from English#THREAD thread.

Noun

thread m (invariable)Category:Italian lemmas#THREADCategory:Italian nouns#THREADCategory:Italian countable nouns#THREADCategory:Italian indeclinable nouns#THREADCategory:Italian entries with incorrect language header#THREADCategory:Italian masculine nouns#THREADCategory:Pages with entries#THREADCategory:Pages with 4 entries#THREAD

1. (InternetCategory:it:Internet#THREAD) thread (series of messages)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from EnglishCategory:Portuguese terms borrowed from English#THREADCategory:Portuguese unadapted borrowings from English#THREADCategory:Portuguese terms derived from English#THREAD thread.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛdʒi, -ɛdiCategory:Rhymes:Portuguese/ɛdʒi#THREADCategory:Rhymes:Portuguese/ɛdʒi/2 syllables#THREADCategory:Rhymes:Portuguese/ɛdi#THREADCategory:Rhymes:Portuguese/ɛdi/2 syllables#THREAD

Noun

thread f (plural threads)Category:Portuguese lemmas#THREADCategory:Portuguese nouns#THREADCategory:Portuguese countable nouns#THREADCategory:Portuguese entries with incorrect language header#THREADCategory:Portuguese feminine nouns#THREADCategory:Pages with entries#THREADCategory:Pages with 4 entries#THREAD

1. (computingCategory:pt:Computing#THREAD) thread (one of several units of execution running concurrently)
2. (InternetCategory:pt:Internet#THREAD) thread (series of grouped messages)

Further reading

• “thread”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026