thin

Meanings

Adjective

• Having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite.
• Very narrow in all diameters; having a cross section that is small in all directions.
• Having little body fat or flesh; slim; slender; lean; gaunt.
• Of low viscosity or low specific gravity.
• Scarce; not close, crowded, or numerous; not filling the space.
• Describing a poorly played golf shot where the ball is struck by the bottom part of the club head. See fat, shank, toe.
• Lacking body or volume; small; feeble; not full.
• Slight; small; slender; flimsy; superficial; inadequate; not sufficient for a covering.
• Of a route: relatively little used.
• Poor; scanty; without money or success.

Noun

• A loss or tearing of paper from the back of a stamp, although not sufficient to create a complete hole.
• Any food produced or served in thin slices.

Verb

• To make thin or thinner.
• To become thin or thinner.
• To dilute.
• To remove some plants or parts of plants in order to improve the growth of what remains.

Adverb

• Not thickly or closely; in a scattered state.

Related

Similar words

• fine
• scant, scarce, slight

Opposite words

• thick

Origin

• From Middle English thinne, thunne, thenne, from Old English þynne, from Proto-West Germanic *þunnī, from Proto-Germanic *þunnuz – compare *þanjaną – from Proto-Indo-European *ténh₂us ("thin"), from *ten-.
• Cognate with German dünn, Dutch dun, West Frisian tin, Icelandic þunnur, Danish tynd, Swedish tunn, Latin tenuis, Irish tanaí, Welsh tenau, Latvian tievs, Sanskrit तनु ("thin"), Persian تنگ. tenuis. Also related to tenuous.