themselves
them·selves/ðɛmˈsɛlvz/pronoun
themselves is spelled T-H-E-M-S-E-L-V-E-S, 2 syllables: them·selves. The wrong spelling people search most is themslves: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 64 of all searches for the word. Themselves is a pronoun meaning “The reflexive case of they, the third-person plural personal pronoun. The group of people, animals, or…”.
How many letters and syllables are in themselves?
| Letters | 10: T-H-E-M-S-E-L-V-E-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: them·selves |
| In writing | 145 times per million words; the 711th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, themslves, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell themselves?
Themselves is spelled T-H-E-M-S-E-L-V-E-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 64 of the searches for themselves in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is themselves?
Themselves appears 145 times per million words in written English, the 711th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce themselves?
- US /ðɛmˈsɛlvz/
- US [ðɛmˈsɛɫvz]
- US /ðəmˈsɛlvz/
Themselves has 2 syllables, split them·selves in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-themselves.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with themselves
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of themselves
- of they
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does themselves mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
pronoun
- 1
The reflexive case of they, the third-person plural personal pronoun. The group of people, animals, or objects previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).
They’ve hurt themselves.
- 2
The reflexive case of they, the third-person singular personal pronoun. The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).
Would whoever stole my phone please make themselves known.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate themselves?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of themselves: thselves.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Themselves in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | se , eux-mêmes, elles-mêmes |
| German | sich |
| Portuguese | se, si , eles mesmos, elas mesmas |
| Spanish | se , ellos mismos, ellas mismas |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does themselves come from?
Morphologically them + -selves.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).