thief
/ˈθiːf/noun
thief is spelled T-H-I-E-F. The wrong spelling people search most is theif: about 980 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Thief is a noun meaning “One who carries out a theft”. The plural of thief is thieves.
How many letters and syllables are in thief?
| Letters | 5: T-H-I-E-F |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 7.6 times per million words; the 8,542nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, theif, about 980 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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 thief?
Thief is spelled T-H-I-E-F. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for thief 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 thief?
Thief appears 7.6 times per million words in written English, the 8,542nd 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 thief?
- /ˈθiːf/
- [ˈθɪi̯f]
Thief has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-thief.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of thief
- thieves plural
- theef
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does thief mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
One who carries out a theft.
- 2
One who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.
- 3
obsoleteA waster in the snuff of a candle.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Thief in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense one who carries out theft:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | voleur, voleuse |
| German | Dieb, Diebin |
| Portuguese | ladrão, ladra |
| Spanish | ladrón, caco, chorizo, mangante, amigo de lo ajeno, chori |
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 thief come from?
From Middle English thef, theef, þef, from Old English þēof, from Proto-West Germanic *þeub, from Proto-Germanic *þeubaz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tjoof (“thief”), West Frisian tsjeaf (“thief”), Dutch dief (“thief”), Low German Deef, Deev (“thief”), German Dieb (“thief”), Danish tyv (“thief”), Swedish tjuv (“thief”), Icelandic þjófur (“thief”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).