Wiktionary

their

See also: þeir

English

edit

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

From Old Norse þeirra. Replaced native Old English heora.

Pronunciation

edit

Determiner

edit

their

  1. Belonging to, from, of, or relating to, them (plural).
    they will meet tomorrow at their convenience
    this is probably their cat
    • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 155:
      For all things, even Celestial Luminaries, much more atmospheric meteors, have their rise, their culmination, their decline.
    • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
      For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.
    • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
  2. Belonging to someone (one person, singular), or occasionally to something.
    • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], line 1172:
      There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
      As if I were their well-acquainted friend […]
    • 2006, St. John Ambulance, First on the Scene: Student Reference Guide, →ISBN, Lesson 2, page 3:
      Place the casualty on their back with feet and legs raised—this is called the shock position. [emphasis in original] Once the casualty is positioned, cover them to preserve body heat, but do not overheat.
    • 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 112:
      I prefer to think that birds have a sufficiently developed sense of humour to enjoy the spectacle of a human being hunched beneath a bush kissing the back of their hand.
    • 2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, (quoted edition: London: Bloomsbury, 2008, →ISBN, page 93):
      ‘I mean ... if somebody made a mistake,’ Harry went on, ‘and let something slip, I know they didn’t mean to do it. It’s not their fault,’ he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken.
    • 2021, Stern, Moore, Grundy, Young & Binzel, editor, The Pluto System after New Horizons, page 38:
      The only object ... showing the signature of N2 in their spectra is Sedna.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:their.

Usage notes

edit
  • Regarding the use of singular their, see they.
  • The words their, there, and they're are homophones in most English accents today. This often causes confusion between the three in writing.
edit
  • they, them (personal pronouns, subject and object case)
  • theirs (possessive pronoun)

Translations

edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adverb

edit

their

  1. Misspelling of there.

Contraction

edit

their

  1. Misspelling of they’re.

See also

edit
English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.

personal pronoun possessive
pronoun		 possessive
determiner
subjective objective reflexive
first
person		 singular I
me (colloquial)		 me myself
me
mysen		 mine my
mine (before vowels, archaic)
me
plural we us ourselves
ourself
oursen		 ours our
second
person		 singular standard
(historically
formal) 		you you yourself
yoursen		 yours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)		 your
archaic
(historically
informal) 		thou thee thyself
theeself
thysen		 thine thy
thine (before vowels)
plural standard you
ye (archaic)		 you yourselves yours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)		 your
colloquial you all
y'all
you guys		 you all
y'all
you guys		 y'allselves y'all's
you guys'
your guys' (proscribed)		 y'all's
your all's (nonstandard)
you guys'
your guys' (proscribed)
informal /
dialectal 		(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third
person 		singular masculine he him himself
hisself (archaic)
hissen		 his
hisn (obsolete outside dialects)		 his
feminine she her herself
hersen		 hers
hern (obsolete outside dialects)		 her
neuter it
hit		 it
hit		 itself
hitself		 its
his (archaic)		 its
his (archaic)
hits
genderless1 they them themself, themselves theirs their
nonspecific
(formal) 		one one oneself – one's
plural they them
hem, 'em		 themselves
theirsen		 theirs
theirn (obsolete outside dialects)		 their

1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronouns.

Anagrams

edit

Middle English

edit

Determiner

edit

their

  1. Alternative form of þeir

Scottish Gaelic

edit

Pronunciation

edit

Verb

edit

their

  1. future of abair

Usage notes

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=their&oldid=84808730"