thing

Thing is a common English noun used to refer to any object, item, matter, or event. It is also employed as a placeholder for something whose name is unknown or deemed unimportant, as in "a thing" or "the thing is that...". The plural "things" covers both tangible objects and abstract matters. In everyday speech, "thing" functions as a broad category label and appears in many idioms and fixed phrases.

Originating in Old English as þing, meaning assembly or business, the word traces back to Proto-Germanic *þingą, related to other Germanic languages' words for "thing" (for example, German Ding). The original sense referred to an assembly or matter discussed publicly; over time it broadened to denote any object or entity.

Grammatically, thing is a countable noun: one thing, two things. It can refer to physical objects ("a thing on the shelf"), events ("a strange thing happened"), or abstract matters ("the thing is trust"). Phrases like "the thing is," "the best thing about it," and "what's the thing?" are common.

In Western philosophy, the expression "the thing-in-itself" (the German Ding an sich) denotes the object as it exists independently of perception, a distinction posed by Immanuel Kant and discussed by later thinkers. Martin Heidegger also treats "thing" as a way objects are usefully present in the world, emphasizing equipment and material ready-to-hand rather than detached substance.

In modern technology, "the Internet of Things" (IoT) describes networks of interconnected devices or "things" that collect and exchange data. The term also appears in casual speech as a playful stand-in for an unidentified device, with variants such as thingamajig or thingy.

See also: Ding, object, item, entity, ontology.