thread
/ˈθɹɛd/noun, verb
thread is spelled T-H-R-E-A-D. The wrong spelling people search most is thred: about 2,980 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Thread is a noun meaning “A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous…”. The plural of thread is threads.
How many letters and syllables are in thread?
| Letters | 6: T-H-R-E-A-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 28 times per million words; the 3,364th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, thred, about 2,980 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell thread?
Thread is spelled T-H-R-E-A-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for thread 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 thread?
Thread appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th 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 thread?
- /ˈθɹɛd/
- [ˈθɹʷɛd]
Thread has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-thread.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with thread?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as thread.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: hatred, dearth.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of thread
- threads plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- threading participle, present
- threaded past, participle
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does thread mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
- 2
A piece of yarn, especially said of warps and wefts in a woven fabric.
- 3
Any of various natural (as spiderweb, etc.) or manufactured filaments (as glass, plastic, metal, etc.).
the threads of a spiderweb
- 4
A slender stream of water.
a thread of water
- 5
The line midway between the banks of a stream.
- 6
A screw thread.
- 7
The continuing course of life; the thread of life.
- 8
A line of reasoning, sequence of ideas, or train of thought.
I’ve lost the thread of what you’re saying.
verb
- 1
To pass a thread through the eye of a needle.
- 2
To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through; to string.
- 3
To make one's way through or between (a constriction or obstacles).
to thread through narrow passages
- 4
To cautiously make (one's way) through a precarious place or situation.
He threaded his way through legal entanglements.
- 5
To pass through; to pierce through; to penetrate.
- 6
To interweave as if with thread; to intersperse.
- 7
To form a screw thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.).
Coordinate term: tap
- 8
To remove (facial hair) by way of a looped thread that is tightly wound in the middle.
to thread your eyebrows and trim them
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Thread in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fil , processus léger, exétron, fil d'exécution , filer |
| German | Faden, Garn, Zwirn, Nähgarn, Strang , Thema |
| Portuguese | fio, linha, barbante , thread , fio da meada, tópico |
| Spanish | hilo, bouclé (buclé), buclé, hilaracha, filástica, madeja |
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 thread come from?
From Middle English thred, þred, threed, from Old English þrǣd, from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-s, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).