thymus

See also: Thymus

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

thymus

Wikipedia

Etymology

From New Latin thymus, from Ancient Greek θύμος (thúmos, “warty excrescence, (also, as used by Galen) thymus gland”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: thīʹməs, IPA^(key): /ˈθaɪ.məs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪməs

Noun

thymus (plural thymuses or thymi)

1. (anatomy, immunology) Ellipsis of thymus gland (“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.”).
   • 2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 234:

     For a very long time the role of the thymus in the body was a complete mystery.

Derived terms

• thymectomy
• thymic

Related terms

• enthymeme
• thyme

Translations

ductless gland located behind the breastbone

Arabic: غُدَّة زَعْتَرِيَّة f (ḡudda zaʕtariyya), غُدَّة صَعْتَرِيَّة f (ḡudda ṣaʕtariyya) Armenian: ուրցագեղձ (hy) (urcʻageġj) Azerbaijani: timus, çəngələbənzər vəzi Catalan: tim m, timus m Chinese: Mandarin: 胸腺 (zh) (xiōngxiàn) Czech: brzlík (cs) m Dutch: thymus (nl) m, zwezerik (nl) m Finnish: kateenkorva (fi) French: thymus (fr) m German: Thymus m, Bries (de) n Greek: θύμος (el) m (thýmos) Hungarian: csecsemőmirigy (hu) Ingrian: syänkorva Irish: faireog thímis f, tímeas m Italian: timo (it) m Japanese: 胸腺 (ja) (きょうせん, kyōsen) Kazakh: айырша без (aiyrşa bez) Korean: 흉선 (hyungseon) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: تایمۆس (taymos) Northern Kurdish: rijênê tîmus m, tîmus f Malayalam: തൈമസ് (taimasŭ) Norwegian: Bokmål: brissel (no) m Persian: تیموس (fa) (timus), آویشنک (āvīšanak) Polish: grasica (pl) f Portuguese: timo (pt) m Russian: ти́мус (ru) m (tímus), ви́лочковая железа́ (ru) f (víločkovaja železá) Spanish: timo (es) m Swedish: bräss (sv) c, thymus c, tymus (sv) c Turkish: timus Uyghur: تۆش بېزى (tösh bëzi) Vietnamese: tuyến ức Walloon: timusse (wa) m

See also

• sweetbreads

References

• “‖thymus” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]
    (ˈθaɪməs) Pl. thymi (ˈθaɪmaɪ) … a. Gr. θύμος (θῠ-)

Further reading

• “thymus”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “thymus”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “thymus”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “thymus”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “thymus”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “thymus”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “thymus”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “thymus”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• mythus

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek θύμος (thúmos, “warty excrescence”, “thymus gland”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtʰy.mʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtiː.mus]

Noun

thymus m (genitive thymī); second declension

1. (medicine) A type of wart

This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes, then please add them!

1. (botany) thyme
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid I.436:

      […], redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.

      […], and the fragrant honey spreads back in the air its odour of thyme.

2. (anatomy, New Latin) thymus

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	thymus	thymī
genitive	thymī	thymōrum
dative	thymō	thymīs
accusative	thymum	thymōs
ablative	thymō	thymīs
vocative	thyme	thymī

Related terms

• thymium
• thymōsus
• thymum
• thymītēs

Descendants

• → English: thymus

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

thymus

Wikipedia ^sv

Alternative forms

• tymus

Noun

thymus c

1. (anatomy, immunology) thymus

   Synonym: bräss

Declension

Declension of thymus

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	thymus	thymus
	definite	thymusen	thymusens
plural	indefinite	thymusar	thymusars
	definite	thymusarna	thymusarnas

References

• thymus in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• thymus in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• thymus in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• Svensk MeSH