Word
thy
US/ˈðaɪ/
UK/ðˈaɪ/
Definition
det. an old word meaning 'your' when you are speaking to one person.
det. the archaic or dialectal possessive determiner for the second-person singular; functions as the possessive form of 'thou'.
Examples
“Honor thy father and thy mother.”
“The poet wrote of the sun's rays warming thy face as you wake.”
“In the sonnet, the speaker addresses a beloved directly, using thy to establish an intimacy that the more formal 'your' would fail to convey to a contemporary audience.”
Examples
simple
“Honor thy father and thy mother.”
contextual
“The poet wrote of the sun's rays warming thy face as you wake.”
complex
“In the sonnet, the speaker addresses a beloved directly, using thy to establish an intimacy that the more formal 'your' would fail to convey to a contemporary audience.”
Usage
Used before words starting with a consonant sound; 'thine' is typically used before vowel sounds.
Teaching tip
This word is almost exclusively found in the King James Bible, Shakespeare, or traditional poetry. Modern learners should recognize it but never use it in contemporary communication.
Pitfall
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Honor your father and your mother.
Do not use 'thy' in modern speech or writing unless you are writing poetry or religious texts; use 'your' instead.
Real-World Examples
“Our findings indicate that the root of the problem is not a lack of support for religious pluralism or insufficient willingness to love thy neighbor.” Etymology
From Middle English þi, apocopated variant of þin, from Old English þīn, from Proto-West Germanic þīn, from Proto-Germanic þīnaz, from Proto-Indo-European téynos (“thy; thine”), from Proto-Indo-European túh₂ (“thou”). See thou.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Synonyms
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/thy