thousand

A thousand is a number equal to 10 times 100. In numerals, it’s 1,000 or 1000.

The word thousand is almost always preceded by the word a (as in a thousand, which means the same thing as 1,000) or by another number, as in two thousand (2,000), ten thousand (10,000), or nine hundred ninety-nine thousand (999,000).

You wouldn’t say “I have thousand dollars”—you would say “I have a thousand dollars” or “I have one thousand dollars.”

In the context of math, the range of numbers between 1,000 and 999,999 is called the thousands (just as the range between 100 and 999 is called the hundreds).

In general, the plural form thousands typically refers to a large but unspecified number or amount somewhere in the thousands, as in The repairs will cost thousands of dollars. Generally, this means between 2,000 and 9,999. The term tens of thousands could be used for a higher amount (typically between 10,000 and 99,999). The phrase the thousands can also be used to refer to a large number or amount without giving the exact total, as in I don’t know how many people were at the concert, but it had to be in the thousands. 

Thousand and thousands are also often used to exaggerate the number or amount of something, as in I heard about a thousand excuses from my students today or I have thousands of things I need to get done. 

In Roman numerals, the number one thousand is represented by the letter M.

Example: There must have been a thousand people playing in the park today.

The first records of the word thousand come from before the year 900. It comes from the Old English thūsend.

A thousand is what we call a nice, round number—which basically means it ends in 0. We use round numbers like 100 and 1,000 in estimates instead of giving more specific amounts. This means that a thousand is a very commonly used word. It’s also commonly used in exaggerated amounts, as in I have like a thousand text messages. However, when people really want to exaggerate, they usually go bigger, like eighty billion.

What are some other forms related to thousand? 

• thousands (plural)
• thousandth (adjective, noun)

What are some words that share a root or word element with thousand? 

• thousandfold

What are some words that often get used in discussing thousand?

• ten
• hundred
• million
• dollars
• miles
• years
• millennium
• people
• several

Thousand is very commonly used in all kinds of contexts. It’s often used in exaggerations about how much of something there is.

More than a thousand people attended our Missouri chapter meeting last night. #ExpectUs

To attend a meeting in your community, text READY to 64433. https://t.co/pcR9aBoqPl

— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) March 2, 2018

On Spotify, if your music ranks highly for a generic search term like "relaxing" or "white noise," you can accumulate enough listens to steadily make hundreds, in some cases thousands, of dollars a month with minimal effort. https://t.co/SRHUt2BP38

— OneZero (@ozm) September 22, 2020

You can apologize a thousand times, but if you don't change your actions, your words are meaningless

— Boonaa Mohammed (@boonaamohammed) September 16, 2020

Is thousand used correctly in the following sentence?

I ordered a pack of a thousand so we wouldn’t run out.