they
English
/ðeɪ/
pron
Definitions
- (the third-person plural) A group of people, animals, plants or objects previously mentioned.
- (the third-person singular) A single person, previously mentioned, especially if of unknown or non-binary gender, but not if previously named and identified as male or female.
- (indefinite pronoun, vague meaning) People; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English thei derived from Old Norse þeir derived from Proto-Germanic *þai (those, they) derived from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (demonstrative stem, that).
Origin
Proto-Indo-European
*to-, *só
Gloss
demonstrative stem, that
Concept
Semantic Field
Miscellaneous function words
Ontological Category
Other
Emoji
Timeline
Distribution of cognates by language
Geogrpahic distribution of cognates
Cognates and derived terms
- talis Latin
- τηλίκος Ancient Greek
- τότε Ancient Greek
- *to- Proto-Indo-European
- *to-, *só Proto-Indo-European
- *þai Proto-Germanic
- de Swedish
- dei Norwegian Nynorsk
- þa Old English
- þā Old English
- thei Middle English
- tho Middle English
- þei Middle English
- þeir Old Norse
- þeir Icelandic
- teir Faroese
- thē Old Danish
- they Sranan Tongo
- dier Elfdalian