their
Language: English
Part of speech: det
Pronunciation: enpr: thâr
homophone: they're
homophone: (pane–pain merger) there
ipa: /ðɛə/
ipa: /ðɛː/
ipa: /ðeɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
enpr: thûr
ipa: /ðɜː(ɹ)/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /ðɛɚ/
ipa: /ðɚ/
enpr: thär
ipa: /ðɑː(ɹ)/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
homophone: tahr
homophone: Thar
ipa: [ðeːɹ]
ipa: /ðeː/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
enpr: thîr
ipa: /ðiə/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /ðeə/
note: Indic, rhotic
ipa: /d̪ʱɛjr/
note: pane–pain merger
ipa: /d̪ʱer/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: /d̪ʱɛjə/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: /d̪ʱe.jə/
note: pane–pain merger
ipa: /d̪ʱa/
note: th-alveolarisation
ipa: /zɛə(ɹ)/
Forms: form: thair
form: theire
form: theyr
form: theyre
form: thir
Etymology: From Old Norse þeirra. Replaced native Old English heora.
Senses: examples: text: they will meet tomorrow at their convenience
text: this is probably their cat
text: For all things, even Celestial Luminaries, much more atmospheric meteors, have their rise, their culmination, their decline.
ref: 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 155:
text: For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.
ref: 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
text: Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
ref: 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2020:
text: Proponents of adding a gender-neutral option to state identification documents say it would remove a form of discrimination against nonbinary people by providing them with the means to carry identification that matches their identity.
ref: 2019 May 29, Amy Harmon, “Which Box Do You Check? Some States Are Offering a Nonbinary Option”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2019:
glosses: Belonging to, from, of, or relating to, them (plural).
examples: text: There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
As if I were their well-acquainted friend […]
ref: c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], line 1172:
text: Place the casualty on their back with feet and legs raised—this is called the shock position. [emphasis in original] Once the casualty is positioned, cover them to preserve body heat, but do not overheat.
ref: 2006, St. John Ambulance, First on the Scene: Student Reference Guide, →ISBN, Lesson 2, page 3:
text: I prefer to think that birds have a sufficiently developed sense of humour to enjoy the spectacle of a human being hunched beneath a bush kissing the back of their hand.
ref: 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 112:
text: ‘I mean ... if somebody made a mistake,’ Harry went on, ‘and let something slip, I know they didn’t mean to do it. It’s not their fault,’ he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken.
ref: 2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, (quoted edition: London: Bloomsbury, 2008, →ISBN, page 93):
text: The only object ... showing the signature of N₂ in their spectra is Sedna.
ref: 2021, Stern, Moore, Grundy, Young & Binzel, editor, The Pluto System after New Horizons, page 38:
glosses: Belonging to someone (one person, singular), or occasionally to something.
Related terms: word: they
english: personal pronouns, subject and object case
translation: personal pronouns, subject and object case
word: them
word: theirs