thicket

noun

thick·​et ˈthi-kət 

1

: a dense growth of shrubbery or small trees : copse

2

: something resembling a thicket in density or impenetrability : tangle

a political thicket

a thicket of reporters

thickety

ˈthi-kə-tē 

adjective

Synonyms

• boscage
• boskage
• bosk
• bosque
• bosquet
• brake
• brushwood
• chaparral
• coppice
• copse
• covert

Examples of thicket in a Sentence

a dense thicket of rosebushes

flushed a pheasant from a thicket of willows

Recent Examples on the Web

But on January 11, 1937, a young man hunting rabbits south of Everett finds Charles’s naked, battered body dumped in a thicket of alders, knifed in the back and beaten in the head with a blunt instrument. —Caroline Fraser june 10, Literary Hub, 10 June 2025

The Trump administration has been ensnared in a Lilliputian thicket of nationwide injunctions almost since the moment that Donald Trump was sworn in and began issuing executive orders. —The Editors, National Review, 19 May 2025

Leapfrog releases safety grades twice a year and is one of a number of organizations that rates hospitals, aiming to help consumers and employers that buy health insurance make sense of a thicket of complex data about hospitals. —Lisa Schencker, Chicago Tribune, 1 May 2025

Few other books can take you through Renaissance France, the arctic wilderness, and a thicket of sexist constraints in such an engaging way. —The Atlantic, 15 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English *thikket, from Old English thiccet, from thicce thick

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for thicket

• chicot
• cricket
• picket
• picot
• ticket
• wicket

Kids Definition

thicket

noun

thick·​et ˈthik-ət 

1

: a thick usually small patch of shrubbery, small trees, or underbrush

2

: something resembling a thicket in being crowded together or impenetrable

a thicket of fans