From Middle English thing, from Old English þing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing, from Proto-Germanic *þingą.

Compare Western Frisian ding, Low German Ding, Dutch ding, German Ding, Swedish -, Danish - and Norwegian ting, Finnish tinki.

The word originally meant "assembly", then came to mean a specific issue discussed at such an assembly, and ultimately came to mean most broadly "an object". Compare Latin rēs, also meaning "legal matter", and same transition from Latin causa (“legal matter”) to "thing" in Romance languages.

• enPR: thĭng, IPA: /θɪŋ/

thing (plural things)

1. That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Luke 1:1 ↗:

     Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us...

2. A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.
3. An individual object or distinct entity.
4. (legal)
   1. Whatever can be owned.
   2. Corporeal object.
5. (in the plural) Possessions or equipment; stuff; gear.

   Hold on, let me just grab my things.

6. (somewhat dated, with the) The latest fad or fashion.
   • 1802, Anne Ormsby, "Memoirs of a Family in Swisserland", quoted in The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal page 45 ↗:

     To go to bed late, to rise late, to breakfast late, to dine late, and to visit late, is to be “quite the thing,” or in good English, which you may understand better than the first phrase, to be in the fashion.

7. (informal) A custom or practice.

   Cheek kissing is a French thing; you get used to it after a while.

8. (informal) A genuine concept, entity or phenomenon; something that actually exists (often contrary to expectation or belief). [from 20th c.]

   Bacon pie? Is that a thing?

   • 2014, Marianna Papastephanou, Torill Strand, Anne Pirrie, Philosophy as a Lived Experience:

     Frequent statements of the kind “'Race' is not a thing”, “'races,' put simply, do not exist”, “'race' (as each essay subtly shows) simply does not exist” aim to discredit Todorov's claim that a relapse to an ontology of race is at place […]

9. (informal) A unit or container, usually containing consumable goods.

   Could you get me a thing of apple juice at the store?

   I just ate a whole thing of jelly beans.

10. (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.

    The car looks cheap, but the thing is, I have doubts about its safety.

11. (informal, with the) The central point; the crux.

    That's the thing: we don't know where he is.

12. (slang) A penis.
    • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 150 ↗:

      “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing.”

13. A living being or creature.

    you poor thing

    sweet young thing

    she's a funny old thing, but her heart's in the right place

    I met a pretty blond thing at the bar

14. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to promote that vision thing.

    • 1914, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101122050843/http://eoneill.com/texts/movie/contents.htm The Movie Man] [playscript]:

      Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing. (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)

15. (informal, used possessively) That which is favoured; personal preference.

    it's not really my thing

    • 2002, Joss Whedon et al, "Never Leave Me", Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV episode):

      Tool talk [is] not my thing.

    • 2006, Corbin Bleu, interview with Tigerbeat magazine:

      The Internet isn't my thing. I so much rather talk on the phone.

16. (informal, used possessively, with "do") One's typical routine, habits, or manner.

    let me do my thing;  I'm here doing my thing

    • 2006, David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, Tarcher 2006, "Darkness", p. 91:

      But I'm just a guy from Missoula, Montana, doing my thing, going down the road like everybody else.

17. (chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
    • 1974, Jón Jóhannesson, translated by Haraldur Bessason, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga, page 46:

      In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]

    • 1974, Jakob Benediktsson, Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis, in Saga Íslands, quoted in 1988 by Jesse L. Byock in Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, page 85:

      The goðar seem both to have received payment of thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing, and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.

    • 1988, Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, page 59:

      All Icelandic things were skap-thing, meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.

18. (informal) A romantic relationship.
19. (informal) A romantic couple.

    Are John and Jennifer a thing again? I thought they broke up.

20. (MLE) Alternative form of ting.
21. (MLE) Girl; attractive woman.

    Look at the nyash on that thing!

• (referent that can be used to refer to any entity) item, stuff (uncountable equivalent), yoke (Ireland)
• (penis) see Thesaurus:penis
• (personal preference) see Thesaurus:predilection

• diminutives: thingy / thingie, thingo [Aus]

• French: chose, truc, machin (informal)
• German: Ding, Sache, Gegenstand
• Italian: cosa
• Portuguese: coisa
• Russian: вещь
• Spanish: cosa

• Russian: не́что

• Russian: предме́т

• German: Sache

• German: Sache

• German: Ding
• Italian: coso

thing (things, present participle thinging; simple past and past participle thinged)

1. (rare) To express as a thing; to reify.

See thing.

• enPR: thĭng, IPA: /θɪŋ/

thing (plural things)

1. (chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
   • 1894, George W. Dasent, transl., The Orkneyingers Saga: Icelandic Sagas, volume 3:

     But when the earl held a Thing, then Thorkell spoke on behalf of the freemen, told the need of the men, and bade the earl spare his people.

   • 1988, Patrick J. Geary, Chapter II, "The Barbarian World in the Sixth Century", 'Germanic Culture', Before France and Germany: the creation and transformation of the Merovingian world, page 55:

     The supreme political unit of the tribe was the assembly of its free male warriors. This assembly, called the "Thing", served as the court of highest instance for dealing with individuals who had broken fundamental elements of the tribal pact, an occasion to meet and to reinforce ties among members, and, often, an assembly which preceded a military campaign.

   • 1997, “Egil's Saga”, in Bernard Scudder, transl., The Sagas of Icelanders, Penguin, published 2001, page 168:

     Before Thorstein left home, he and Asgerd decided to take Arinbjorn's gift, the silk cloak, out of Egil's chest, and Thorstein wore it to the Thing.

   • 2004, Sjúrður Skaale, The Right to National Self-Determination: the Faroe Islands and Greenland, page 46:

     1928 The Executive Committee of the Law Thing is created to assume executive powers from the Governor.

2. (informal) Nickname or appellative for numerous "things", including fictional characters.
3. (informal, slang, US) Nickname for the Volkswagen 181.

• French: Thing
• German: Ding, Thing
• Italian: ting, thing
• Portuguese: thing
• Russian: тинг
• Spanish: thing