thing

1 a member of the human race you poor thing, you must be exhausted Synonyms baby, being, bird, bod [British], body, character, cookie (or cooky), creature, customer, devil, duck, egg, face, fish, guy, head, human being, individual, life, man, mortal, party, person, personage, scout, slob, sort, soul, specimen, stiff, human, wightRelated Words hominid, homo, humanoid; brother, fellow, fellowman, neighbor; celebrity, personality, self, somebodyNear Antonyms animal, beast, beastie, brute, critter

2 one that has a real and independent existence the thing to which the subject of the sentence refers Synonyms being, commodity, existent, individual, individuality, integer, object, reality, something, substance, entityRelated Words body, subject; material, matter, quantity, stuffNear Antonyms nonentity

3 something done by someone one of the things you can do is to help me clean up Synonyms act, deed, doing, exploit, feat, actionRelated Words accomplishment, achievement, attainment; adventure, experience; emprise, enterprise, initiative, undertaking; handiwork, performance, work; stunt, trick; activity, dealing; maneuver, measure, move, operation, procedure, proceeding, step, tactic; coaction

4 something material that can be perceived by the senses can you hand me that thing over there? Synonyms objectRelated Words article, item, piece; being, entity, substance; commodity, good, ware; dingus, doohickey, thingamabob, thingamajig (or thingumajig), thingummy, whatchamacallit, whatnot; accessory (also accessary), accompaniment, bauble, curio; gaud, gewgaw (also geegaw), knickknack (also nicknack), novelty, ornamental, spangle, token, trinket

5 something produced by physical or intellectual effort just the latest thing from her fertile imagination Synonyms affair, fruit, handiwork, labor, output, produce, production, product, work, yieldRelated Words article, commodity, entry, object; goods, line, merchandise, wares; handcraft, handicraft; aftereffect, aftermath, conclusion, consequence, corollary, development, effect, issue, outcome, result, resultant, sequel, sequence, upshot; by-product, derivative, offshoot, offspring, outgrowth, residual, side effect (also side reaction), spin-off

6 something that happens the burglary was just one of those things that can happen anywhere Synonyms affair, circumstance, episode, hap, happening, incident, occasion, occurrence, eventRelated Words coincidence, co-occurrence, fluke, freak; landmark, milepost, milestone, page, phenomenon, turning point; adventure, experience, time; happenchance, happenstance; accident, crisis, emergency, juncture; achievement, deed, exploit, feat; news, tidings

7 something that one hopes or intends to accomplish the important thing is that we get the project back on schedule Synonyms aim, ambition, aspiration, bourne (also bourn), design, dream, end, idea, ideal, intent, intention, mark, meaning, object, objective, plan, point, pretension, purpose, target, goalRelated Words grail, holy grail; plot, project, scheme; desire, hope, mind, wish; nirvana; destination, terminusNear Antonyms means, method, way

8 something to be dealt with I have lots of things to do this afternoon Synonyms affair, business, matterRelated Words consideration, issue, problem; crisis, crossroad(s), crunch, emergency, exigency, flash point, head, juncture, strait, zero hour; concern, trouble, worry; care, lookout, responsibility; deadlock, halt, impasse, stalemate, standstill; corner, fix, hole, hot water, jam, pickle, pinch, predicament, scrape, spot