thought
/θɔt/noun, verb
thought is spelled T-H-O-U-G-H-T. The wrong spelling people search most is thoght: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 130 of all searches for the word. Thought is a noun meaning “A representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or…”. The plural of thought is thoughts.
How many letters and syllables are in thought?
| Letters | 7: T-H-O-U-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 389 times per million words; the 233rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, thoght, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 thought?
Thought is spelled T-H-O-U-G-H-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 78 of the searches for thought 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 thought?
Thought appears 389 times per million words in written English, the 233rd 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 thought?
- /θɔt/
- /θɑt/
- [θɒ(ː)t]
Thought has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-thought.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-thought.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-thought.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with thought
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 thought
- thoughts plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does thought mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- 2
The operation by which mental activity arise or are manipulated; the process of thinking; the agency by which thinking is accomplished.
Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.
- 3
A way of thinking (associated with a group, nation, region or idea).
school of thought
- 4
Anxiety, distress.
- 5
The careful consideration of multiple factors; deliberation.
After much thought, I have decided to stay.
- 6
A very small amount, distance, etc.; a whit or jot.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of think
Hi! I thought I’d come over and introduce myself. My name’s Chema.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate thought?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of thought: tho't.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Thought in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | idée, pensée |
| German | Gedanke , Nachdenken |
| Portuguese | pensamento, ideia |
| Spanish | pensamiento, pienso |
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 thought come from?
From Middle English thought, ithoȝt, from Old English þōht, ġeþōht, from Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht, from Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz, *gaþanhtą (“thought”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).