thingy

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪŋiː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪŋi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋi

From thing + -y (diminutive suffix).

• thingie, thingee

thingy (plural thingies)

1. (informal) A thing (used to refer to something vaguely or when one cannot recall or does not wish to mention its name).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:thingy

   • 1996, Antonio Skármeta, translated by Jonathan Tittler, Love-Fifteen, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Latin American Literary Review Press, →ISBN, page 115:

     And as soon as that temperature returns to normal, let’s talk about the thingies that go through your headie at night.

   • 2013, Iain Banks, Raw Spirit, page 60:

     What I should really do, of course, is use a Personal Digital Assistant; one of those tiny hand-held computerette thingies […]

   • 2023, Steve G Romaniuk, Tales from the Alternate Universe: Vol. 1:

     The incorporated technology is based on absolutely serious alt-fact science—that old familiar Einsteiny, time dilation thingy only in reverse— which also forms the basis of much of LaLa Valley's tech AI prowess.

2. (slang, euphemistic, childish) A penis.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:penis

   • 2004, Richard Tinsley, Walking on the Son:

     He pulled out his thingy. It was huge.

thingy

2. (informal) A person whose name one cannot recall.

   Hyponyms: what's-his-name, what's-her-name, what's-his-face, what's-her-face

   He reminds me of thingy from that film.

From thing + -y (adjectival suffix).

thingy (comparative thingier, superlative thingiest)

1. Resembling or characteristic of a thing; tangible.
   • 1985, A. S. Byatt, Still Life:

     The most unpleasant, and also the thingiest, the central thing in Foreign Parts, was a giant banyan tree, putting out more and more suckers which created tangled arches, a swollen hiding-place of a tree, a series of organic traps, […]

   • 2017, Francis Spufford, True Stories: And Other Essays, page 128:

     The secret of even the thingiest SF, the most solid-walnut-to-the-knuckles fantasy, is that you don't need much to summon worlds out of air, so long as the details are the right ones.

• “thingummy, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

• Wikipedia article on placeholder names

• nighty