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thymus

noun

Simple meaning

A ductless gland, consisting mainly of lymphatic tissue, located behind the top of the breastbone.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

thymuhs

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈθaɪməs

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. anatomyimmunology

    A ductless gland, consisting mainly of lymphatic tissue, located behind the top of the breastbone. It is most active during puberty, after which it shrinks in size. It plays an important role in the development of the immune system and produces lymphocytes.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: A ductless gland, consisting mainly of lymphatic tissue, located behind the top of the breastbone. It is most active during puberty, after which it shrinks in size. It plays an important role in the development of the immune system and produces lymphocytes.

Used this way, thymus is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Medicine/healthcare
  • Science
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Nearby words

  • thymus gland , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

thymus glandcalf thymusthymus dnanormal thymushuman thymusenlarged thymusmouse thymusrat thymus

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • thymus glandnounCompound term

    A ductless glandular organ at the base of the neck that produces lymphocytes and aids in producing immunity.

  • thymus serpyllumnounCompound term

    Aromatic dwarf shrub common on banks and hillsides in Europe.

  • thymus vulgarisnounCompound term

    Common aromatic garden perennial native to the western Mediterranean.

  • genus thymusnounCompound term

    Large genus of Old World mints: thyme.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: ductless gland or consisting mainly of lymphatic tissue

thymus glandTechnical

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.