tho

See also: Appendix:Variations of "tho"

English

Pronunciation

• (when stressed)
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ðəʊ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): /ðoʊ/
  • Rhymes: -əʊ
• (when unstressed)
  • (West Country) IPA^(key): /ðə/
  • Homophone: the

Etymology 1

From Middle English tho, tha, from Old English þā (“the, those”, plural), from Proto-West Germanic *þai, from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”), from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (“that”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian do (“the”, plural). Doublet of they.

Article

tho

1. (obsolete, West Country) The (plural form); those.

Pronoun

tho

1. (obsolete) Those; they.

Etymology 2

From Middle English tho, tha, from Old English þā (“then, when”), from Proto-Germanic *þa- (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (“that”). See also German da (“then, thereupon”).

Adverb

tho (not comparable)

1. (now dialectal) Then; thereupon.
   • 1481, William Caxton, The History Reynard the Foxː

     Tho went I near and found Master Reynard, that had left that he first read and sang, and began to play his old play.

   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Ianuarye. Ægloga Prima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

     Tho to a hill his faynting flocke he ledde.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Tho, her avizing of the vertues rare / Which thereof spoken were, she gan againe / Her to bethink of that mote to her selfe pertaine.

   • 1642, Henry More, Song Soulː

     Tho I gan closely on his person look.

Conjunction

tho

1. (dialectal) When.

Etymology 3

Simplified reform spelling. Popular in American English in the earlier 20th century. Like thru, it failed to establish itself fully, but remains in informal contexts or where brevity is needed. Compare tho'.

Adverb

tho (not comparable)

1. (chiefly US and Philippines, dated or informal, also Internet slang) Alternative spelling of though.
   • 1919 September 6, “Wanted: A Nutrition Laboratory”, in The Literary Digest, volume 62, number 10 (1533 overall), New York, N.Y.; London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, “Science and Invention” section, page 114, column 2:

     The English are told as children that maize is food for pigs, and tho Americans eat maizebread with pleasure and have recently done so to a huge extent in order to make possible exports of wheat to Europe, the English persist in their unfounded prejudice against it.

   • 2009, John Hough, Seen the Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg‎^[1], Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 121:

     I wonder now when I will find time to read it but it is a treasure anyway tho heavy in my knapsack, […]

Anagrams

• toh, Toh, hot, OTH, o'th', oth, -oth, HOT

Crimean Gothic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *sa, *sō, *þat.

Article

tho

1. the
   • 1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq:

     omnibus vero dictionibus praeponebat articulum tho aut the

     but to all utterances one prefixes the article tho or the

Usage notes

While it is likely that Crimean Gothic retained grammatical gender, de Busbecq's letter does not mention which articles are used with which words, making it impossible to reconstruct their gender.

Isoko

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Edoid *do (“to steal”).

Verb

tho (gerund etho)

1. to steal

Lower Tanana

Etymology

Compare Ahtna -zaa, Navajo azééʼ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θɔ/

Noun

tho (third-person singular possessed form bedho)

1. mouth

Derived terms

• -dhoyi (“in the mouth”)
• dhoɬ (“to yawn”)
• thonkenaya (“gossip”)

References

• Kari, James et al. (2024), Kari, James, editor, Lower Tanana Dene Dictionary, Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, →ISBN, page 454

Middle English

Article

tho

1. the
   • c. 1449-1455, Reginald Pecock, Represser of over-much weeting of the Clergie

     sithen if tho thre be sufficiently improued , that is to seie , if it be sufficientli proued that tho thre ben noust and vntrewe and badde

     then if the three be sufficiently improved, that is to say, if it be sufficiently proved that the three are naught and untrue and bad

Mizo

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thaw.

Verb

tho (stem II thawh)

1. to get up, rise

Further reading

• Lorrain, J. Herbert (1940), “tho”, in Dictionary of the Lushai language, Calcutta: Asiatic Society

Old High German

Adverb

thō

1. alternative form of duo

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *þō.

Adverb

thō

1. then

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θoː/

Adverb

tho (not comparable)

1. though, however

Welsh

Noun

tho

1. aspirate mutation of to

Mutation

Mutated forms of to

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
to	do	nho	tho

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.