Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The cardinal number equal to 10 × 100 or 103.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Numbering ten hundred; hence, of an indefinitely large number.
  • noun The number ten hundred, or ten times ten times ten; hence, indefinitely, a great number.
  • noun A symbol representing the number ten hundred, as M, 1,000.
  • noun In brick-making, a quantity of clay sufficient for making a thousand bricks.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The number of ten hundred; a collection or sum consisting of ten times one hundred units or objects.
  • noun Hence, indefinitely, a great number.
  • noun A symbol representing one thousand units.
  • adjective Consisting of ten hundred; being ten times one hundred.
  • adjective Hence, consisting of a great number indefinitely.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun cardinal A numerical value equal to 1,000 = 10 × 100 = 103

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective denoting a quantity consisting of 1,000 items or units
  • noun the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English thūsend; see teuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English thousend, thusand, from Old English þūsend ("thousand"), from Proto-Germanic *þūsundī (“thousand”). Cognate with Scots thousand ("thousand"), Saterland Frisian duusend ("thousand"), West Frisian tûzen ("thousand"), Dutch duizend ("thousand"), German tausend ("thousand"), Danish tusind ("thousand"), Swedish tusen ("thousand"), Icelandic þúsund ("thousand").

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Examples

  • Will our readers believe it -- there were only five hundred tureens of turtle, or two thousand five hundred pints, or _five thousand_ basins, amongst not quite fifteen hundred guests, -- only two basins and a half a man, -- for the first course!

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841 Various

  • Of eight thousand two hundred and twenty-three male teachers in 1860, _three thousand_ went to the war, showing that it is among her most intelligent and instructed classes that we are to look for the patriotism of

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No. V, May, 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various

  • I may mention that Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, in urging her sister women at various mass meetings to sign this pledge, made the impressive estimate that, by practising these economies during a two years 'war, a hundred thousand well-to-do American women might save a _thousand million dollars_.

    The Conquest of America A Romance of Disaster and Victory Cleveland Moffett 1894

  • Or, suppose we weigh these papers: If ten of them weigh a single pound, then each day's issue weighs _thirty thousand pounds_, each week's issue _one hundred and eighty thousand_, the aggregate of the year amounting to NINE MILLION POUNDS!

    From Boyhood to Manhood Life of Benjamin Franklin 1859

  • Of fifty thousand of these paupers, the _causes_ of whose destitution have been ascertained, nearly _twenty thousand_ are attributable, directly or indirectly, to intemperance, profligacy, licentiousness, and crime!

    Popular Education For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes Ira Mayhew 1854

  • To give only a small supply of teachers to these destitute children, who are generally where the population is sparse, will demand _thirty thousand teachers_; and _six thousand_ more will be needed every year, barely to meet the increase of juvenile population.

    An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism With reference to the duty of American females Catharine Esther Beecher 1839

  • England, upon three hundred and seventy newspapers, expended upon the nine or ten thousand in America; but I really believe that the expense of the ` _Times_ 'newspaper alone, is equal to at least five _thousand_ of the _minor_ papers in the United States, which are edited by people of no literary pretension, and at an expense so trifling as would appear to us not only ridiculous, but impossible.

    Diary in America, Series Two Frederick Marryat 1820

  • Sir William Temple observes, 'That of all the members of mankind that live within the compass of a thousand years, for one man that is born capable of making a _great poet_ there may be a _thousand_ born capable of making as great generals and ministers of state as any in story.'

    Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 5 (of 6) With His Letters and Journals George Gordon Byron Byron 1806

  • I ridiculed, in indignant language, the idea of granting sixty thousand a-year to a young German adventurer, merely for marrying our Princess, and of giving them _fifty thousand_ pounds as an outfit.

    Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 3 Henry Hunt 1804

  • German now receives annually out of the pockets of the distressed people of England _fifty thousand pounds a-year_, while the President of the United States of America only receives _six thousand_ pounds a-year; so that _Saxe Coburg_ does us the honour to drain the people of England of a sum more than _eight times_ as much as the President of the

    Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 3 Henry Hunt 1804

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