them

• dem (nonstandard)

From Middle English þem, from Old Norse þeim.

• (stressed) enPR: thĕm, IPA^(key): /ˈðɛm/
  • (stressed form, New York City) IPA^(key): [ˈd̪ɛm]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (unstressed) enPR: thəm, IPA^(key): /ˈðəm/
  • (unstressed form, New York City) IPA^(key): [ˈd̪ʌm]
  • (unstressed form, nonstandard, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈðʌm/

• Audio (US, unstressed form); “see them”:

  (file)

• (pen-pin merger) IPA^(key): /ˈðɪm/
• Rhymes: -ɛm
• Hyphenation: them

them (third-person, personal pronoun, objective case of they)

1. (in the plural) Those ones.
   1. Used as the direct object of a verb.

      She treated them for a cold.

      • 2019 May 29, Amy Harmon, “Which Box Do You Check? Some States Are Offering a Nonbinary Option”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 8 June 2019:

        Proponents of adding a gender-neutral option to state identification documents say it would remove a form of discrimination against nonbinary people by providing them with the means to carry identification that matches their identity.

   2. Used as the indirect object of a verb.

      She wrote them a letter.

   3. Used as the object of a preposition.

      Give it to them.

   4. (nonstandard or colloquial, uncommon) As a grammatical subject or object when joined with a conjunction.

      [...] and now them and the Goo Goo Dolls are playing together.

      • 2006 September 27, David Ress, Governor Edward Coles and the Vote to Forbid Slavery in Illinois, 1823-1824, McFarland, →ISBN, page 64:

        […] Illinois, told Christina Holmes Tillson (just arrived from Connecticut herself) : “I am getting skeery about them 'ere Yankees. There is such a power of them coming in that them and the Injuns will squatch out [everyone else].

      • 2021 June 10, Yvonne Bailey-Smith, The Day I Fell Off My Island, Myriad Editions, →ISBN:

        Them and the boys went to live with Auntie Madge and Uncle Herbie when Miss Violet died.

   5. Used in isolation or apposition, or (sometimes proscribed) as the complement of the copula (be).

      Who was there? —Them.

      Who did this? —Them. They did it. (or:) It was them. They did it.)

      Who did that? —(It was) not them: I was watching them the whole time.

2. (in the singular, occasionally proscribed) A single person, previously mentioned, whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or (since 21st c.) non-binary.
   1. Used as the direct object of a verb.

      If a student has an inappropriate question, whatever you do, do not berate them.

      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 17:2–5:

        If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, […] [t]hen shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

      • 2006, St. John Ambulance, First on the Scene: Student Reference Guide, →ISBN, Lesson 2, page 3:

        Place the casualty on their back with feet and legs raised—this is called the shock position. [emphasis in original] Once the casualty is positioned, cover them to preserve body heat, but do not overheat.

      • 2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, London: Bloomsbury, 2008, →ISBN, page 270:

        Someone in the crowd around the lifts called sycophantically, ‘Morning, Yaxley!’ Yaxley ignored them.

   2. Used as the indirect object of a verb.

      If one of my patients calls, please bring them their dinner.

   3. Used as the object of a preposition.

      If someone comes and asks for the ticket, just give it to them.

      • 2024 July 2, Rukiye Arslan, Derya Yanık, Raziye Pekşen Akça, “Investigation of Menstrual Hygiene and Self-Care Skills of Adolescent Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mother Views”, in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, →DOI:

        Each adolescent girl with ASD has needs specific to her because each of them has variable characteristics and different degrees of sensory and perceptual difficulties.

   4. (nonstandard or colloquial, uncommon) As a grammatical subject or object when joined with a conjunction.
      • 1969, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 82:

        " […] he said that everybody was being watched, and if they seen anybody giving Union cards to anybody on Company property, that them and the person receiving the card, they would both be fired.

   5. Used in isolation or apposition, or (sometimes proscribed) as the complement of the copula (be).

      Who was there? —Them.

      Who did this? —Them. They did it. (or:) It was them. They did it.)

      Who did that? —(It was) not them: I was watching them the whole time.

3. (informal set phrases, dialectal or nonstandard) They or those.

   I know it seems unfair, but them's the rules.

   • 1611, King James Bible:

     And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

• Regarding the use of singular them, see they.

• dem (nonstandard)
• em (colloquial)
• 'em (colloquial)
• hem (obsolete)

them

1. (dialectal or nonstandard) Those.

   Gimme two of them yellow ones.

   • 1835, John Pendleton Kennedy, Horse Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency:

     How would you like a scrummage, Andy, with them Scotchmen that stole your mother's chickens this morning?

   • 1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:

     The world 'as got me snouted jist a treat; / Crool Forchin's dirty left 'as smote me soul. / An' all them joys o' life I 'eld so sweet / Is up the pole.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "I say it's a shame, Silas Linden, the way them children is treated."

   • 1956, Allen Ginsberg, “America”, in Howl and Other Poems (Pocket Poets Series), City Lights Books, →OCLC, page 33:

     America you don’t really want to go to war.
     America it's them bad Russians.
     Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.

   • 2005, Elmer Kelton, Sons of Texas, Tor/Forge, page 111:

     " […] Them two wild horses ain't fit to ride, and I been wonderin' how I was goin' to get you out of this place before them Spanish maybe circle back and finish the job."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:them.

• Meth., TEHM, meth, meth-, MHET, tehm

• thôm, thâm, thêm, thēm — Gheg dialects

From Proto-Albanian *θēm-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to say, instruct, announce”). Cognate with Latin cēnseō (“to give an opinion, to judge, guess, reckon”). Potentially a doublet of rrëfej.

• (Tosk) IPA^(key): [θɛm]
• (Gheg) IPA^(key): [θɑ̃m], [θɔ̃m], [θɛ̃m], [θẽːm]

them (aorist thashë, participle thënë)

1. (transitive) to say

• kundërthem

• “them”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006
• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[3], 1980
• Newmark, Leonard (1999), “them”, in Oxford Albanian-English Dictionary‎^[4], Oxford: Oxford University Press

them m

1. country, state

• “them” in Finnish Romani-English Dictionary, ROMLEX – the Romani Lexicon Project, 2000.

them

1. alternative spelling of þem (“them”)

them

1. alternative spelling of þem (“the, that, this”)

them

1. alternative form of tem (“group”)

them

1. alternative form of temen (“to produce offspring”)

them

1. part

Several etymologies have been proposed:

• Inherited from Sanskrit *स्थाम्य (*sthāmya).^[1]
• Borrowed from Old Armenian թեմ (tʻem).^[2][3]

them m (plural thema)

1. country, state
2. area

• Yūsuke Sumi (2018), “them, ~a”, in ニューエクスプレスプラス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Plus Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 156

them m (in the plural thema)

1. land, country
2. country (as opposed to town)
3. earth, world

• “them” in Welsh Romani-English Dictionary, ROMLEX – the Romani Lexicon Project, 2000.