thumb

English

Wikipedia

Picture dictionary

palm

wrist

thumb

index finger

middle finger

ring finger

pinky

Click on labels in the image

Etymology

Middle English thoume, thoumbe, from Old English þūma, from Proto-Germanic *þūmô (cf. West Frisian tomme, Dutch duim, German Daumen), from Proto-Indo-European *tūm- (“to grow”) (cf. Welsh tyfu (“to grow”), Latin tumēre (“to swell”), Albanian thumb (“a sting, protuberance”), Lithuanian tumėti (“to thicken, clot”), Ancient Greek týmbos 'burial mound', Avestan tūma 'strong', Sanskrit túmras 'strong, thick').

Pronunciation

• IPA: /θʌm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌm

Noun

thumb (plural thumbs)

1. The short thick digit of the hand that for humans has the most mobility and can be made to oppose (moved to touch) all of the other fingers.
2. (computing) The part of a slider that may be moved linearly along the slider.
3. (colloquial, Internet) A thumbnail picture.
   • 2001, "Gary", Wanna See Porn? Take a Look At These (Free Expandable Thumbs) - CLICK HERE (on newsgroup alt.sex.services)

Synonyms

• (digit): pollex, digit I, first digit (anatomy) ; thumby (colloquial)

Hypernyms

• (digit): digit, finger

Hyponyms

• (digit): opposable thumb

Derived terms

terms derived from the noun

all fingers and thumbs all thumbs brown thumb green thumb opposable thumb rule of thumb stick out like a sore thumb

thumb a lift thumb a ride thumbboard thumbnail thumbprint thumb-sketch or thumb sketch thumb wrestle thumbs up under one's thumb under the thumb

Translations

digit

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: duim (af)
• Albanian: gisht i madh (sq), gisht i madh i dorës (sq), pulqer (sq)
• Arabic: إبهام (ar) (ʾibhām) m

  Egyptian Arabic: إبهام (ʾibhām) m

• Aragonese: pulgar (an) m
• Aramaic: ܟܪܬܐ (kartāʾ)
• Armenian: բութ մատ (hy) (but' mat) 
• Aromanian: pulicar (sq)
• Asturian: pulgar (ast), dedón (ast), deda (ast), matapioyos (ast)
• Avar: please add this translation if you can
• Azeri: baş barmaq (az)
• Basque: hazlodi (eu)
• Belarusian: вялікі палец (be) (vjalíki páljec) m 
• Bengali: অঙ্গুষ্ঠ (bn) (aṅguṣṭh)
• Breton: biz-meud (br) m, bizied-meud (br) m pl; meud (br) m, meudoù (br) m pl
• Bulgarian: палец (bg) (pálec) m 
• Catalan: polze (ca) m
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 大拇指 (daai6 mou5 ji2)

  Mandarin: 大拇指 (cmn) (dàmuzhǐ)

• Coptic: ⲧⲏⲃ ⲛⲧⲓⲛⲓ (teb ntini) m
• Czech: palec (cs) m
• Danish: tommelfinger (da), tommeltot (da)
• Dhivehi: ބޮޑުވައި އިގިލި (dv)
• Dutch: duim (nl) m
• Erzya: пелька (pelʹka)
• Esperanto: polekso (eo), dikfingro (eo)
• Estonian: pöial (et)
• Finnish: peukalo (fi)
• French: pouce (fr) m
• Friulian: poleâr
• Galician: polgar (gl) m, cachapiollos (gl) m, matapiollos (gl) m
• Georgian: ცერი (ka) (c'eri) 
• German: Daumen (de) m
• Greek: αντίχειρας (el) (antícheiras) m 

  Ancient Greek: ἀντίχειρ m

• Gujarati: અંગૂઠો (gu) (ãṅgūṭho)
• Hebrew: אגודל (he) (agudál)
• Hindi: अंगूठा (hi) (aṅgūṭhā)
• Hungarian: hüvelykujj (hu)
• Icelandic: þumall (is) m, þumalfingur (is) m
• Ido: polexo (io)
• Indonesian: ibu jari (id)
• Interlingua: pollice (ia)
• Italian: pollice (it) m, dito grosso (it) m
• Japanese: 親指 (ja) (おやゆび, oyayubi)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Jèrriais: ponchet m

• Kazakh: бас бармақ (kk) (bas barmaq) 
• Korean: 엄지 (ko) (eomji), 엄지손가락 (ko) (eomji-songarak)
• Kurdish: please add this translation if you can
• Kyrgyz: баш бармак (ky) (baş barmak) 
• Latgalian: eikss m
• Latin: pollex (la) m
• Latvian: īkšķis (lv)
• Lithuanian: nykštys (lt) m
• Low German: Dumen (nds) m, Duum (nds) m
• Luxembourgish: Daum (lb) m
• Macedonian: палец (mk) (pálec) m
• Malay: ibu jari (ms)
• Maltese: saba’ l-kbir (mt) m
• Marathi: अंगठा (mr) (ãṅgaṭhā)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Northern Sami: bealgi
• Norwegian: tommel (no) m
• Occitan: poce (oc) m, pulgar (oc) m
• Ossetian: please add this translation if you can
• Ottoman Turkish: باش پرمق (baš parmak)
• Pangasinan: tangan
• Persian: ابهام (fa) (ebhâm), شست (fa) (šast)
• Pitjantjatjara: maṟa mama
• Polish: kciuk (pl) m
• Portuguese: dedo polegar (pt) m, polegar (pt) m
• Rajasthani: अंगुठौ (ãṅguṭhau)
• Romanian: deget mare (ro) n, policar (ro)
• Russian: большой палец (ru) (bolʹšój pálec) m 
• Sanskrit: अङ्गुष्ठ (sa) (aṅguṣṭha)
• Scots: thoum
• Scottish Gaelic: òrdag (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: палац (sh) m

  Roman: palac (sh) m

• Sicilian: puseri (scn)
• Slovak: palec (sk) m
• Slovene: palec (sl) m
• Spanish: pulgar (es) m
• Swahili: kidole gumba (sw)
• Swedish: tumme (sv) c
• Tagalog: (literally) hinlalaki (tl) n
• Telugu: బొటనవేలు (te) (boTanavElu)
• Thai: หัวแม่มือ (th) (hŭa mâe meu), นิ้วโป้ง (th) (níu pông)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: başparmak (tr) m
• Turkmen: başam barmak (tk)
• Tuvan: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: великий палець (uk) (velýkyj pálecʹ) m 
• Vietnamese: ngón tay cái (vi)
• Volapük: döm (vo)
• West Frisian: tomme (fy)

part of a slider

• Greek: εγκοπή ευρετηρίασης (el) f (egkopí evretiríasis)

• Norwegian: tommeskrue (no) m

Verb

thumb (third-person singular simple present thumbs, present participle thumbing, simple past and past participle thumbed)

1. (transitive) To touch with the thumb.
2. (transitive, with through) To turn the pages of (a book) in order to read it cursorily.

   I thumbed through the book and decided not to bother reading it all.

3. (travel) To hitchhike

   So I started thumbin' back east, toward my hometown.

Synonyms

• (to turn pages): browse, leaf, page, peruse

Derived terms

terms derived from the verb

thumb one's nose thumb a lift thumb a ride

well-thumbed

Translations

touch with the thumb

• Russian: мусолить (ru) (musólitʹ)  (make dirty by extensive use)

turn the pages of (a book) in order to read it cursorily

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 翻閱 (cmn), 翻阅 (cmn) (fānyuè)

• French: feuilleter (fr)
• German: durchblättern (de)

• Russian: листать (ru) (listátʹ) , пролистывать (ru) (prolístyvatʹ) , перелистывать (ru) (perelístyvatʹ) 
• Turkish: sayfaları karıştırmak (tr)

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Albanian

Alternative forms

• thumbull
• thumbi
• thump

Etymology

From thua ‘(finger)nail’, probably a substratum word, akin to Romanian țumburuș (“a small, usually round, protrusion on a surface, nub”) from Proto-Indo-European *tūm- (“to grow”). More at thua.

Noun

thumb m (indefinite plural thumba)

1. sting
2. thorn
3. knob, protuberance