- 1 000 You say a, one, two, etc. thousand without a final ‘s’ on ‘thousand’. Thousands (of…) can be used if there is no number or quantity before it. Always use a plural verb with thousand or thousands, except when an amount of money is mentioned Four thousand (people) are expected to attend. • Two thousand (pounds) was withdrawn from the account. Topics Maths and measurementa1
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- a thousand, thousands (of…)(usually informal) a large number
- There were thousands of people there.
- the thousandsthe numbers from 1 000 to 9 999
- The cost ran into the thousands.
There are more examples of how to use numbers at the entry for hundred.
Word OriginOld English thūsend, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch duizend and German Tausend.
Idioms
See thousand in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee thousand in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishbat a thousand
- (North American English, informal) to be very successful
- He’s made another sale? He’s really batting a thousand!
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thousand