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thickness

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology

From Middle English thikkenesse, thiknesse, from Old English þicnes (“thickness, viscosity, density, hardness; obscurity, cloud, darkness; thicket; depth, a thick body, anything thick or heavy”), from Proto-West Germanic *þikkwīnassī (“thickness”), equivalent to thick +‎ -ness. Cognate with West Frisian tsjokkens (“thickness”), Old High German dickinessī, dikkinissi, diknissi (“thickness, density”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English crassitude (“thickness”) from Latin crassitūdō (“thickness”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈθɪknəs/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪknəs
  • Hyphenation: thick‧ness

Noun

thickness (countable and uncountable, plural thicknesses)

  1. (uncountable) The property of being thick (in dimension).
    Antonym: thinness
  2. (uncountable, countable) A measure of how thick (in dimension) something is.
    Coordinate terms: length, width, height, depth
    The thickness of the Earth's crust varies from two to 70 kilometres.
    Guitar picks come in different thicknesses.
    • 2019 August 6, Ashley Strickland, “Scientists just created the world’s thinnest gold and it’s two atoms thick”, in CNN‎:
      The newest form of gold created in a lab is the thickness of two atoms, according to a new study. It’s only 0.47 nanometers thick, which is one million times thinner than a human finger nail.
    • 2025 January 6, Daniel Toy, “I’ve been journaling for more than 20 years. Here are my 25 favorite journaling supplies”, in CNN‎:
      Whether made by a small business or a household name like Scotch, washi tape comes in countless colors, patterns and thicknesses and can be used for just as many adhesive-related projects, from decorating envelopes and empty jars to creating section dividers and adhering photos/ephemera in journals.
  3. (countable) A layer.
    We upholstered the seat with three thicknesses of cloth to make it more comfortable to sit on.
  5. (uncountable) The quality of being thick (in consistency).
    Synonym: viscosity
    Whip the cream until it reaches a good thickness.
  6. (uncountable, informal) The property of being thick (slow to understand).
  7. (graph theory, countable) The minimum number of planar subgraphs which a given graph can decompose into.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

thickness (third-person singular simple present thicknesses, present participle thicknessing, simple past and past participle thicknessed)

  1. (transitive) To trim (wood) to a consistent thickness using a thickness planer.
    • 2003, Garrett Hack, The Handplane Book, page 143:
      Even if the parts are thicknessed by machine, check for and plane out any cup with a bench plane.

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