Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

thong

/θɒŋ/ noun

In Latin: lōrum, āmentum Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about thong at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Leather strip that forms the flexible part of a whip.
Underpants resembling a G-string; worn by women especially under very tight pants.
she wore thongs in her quest for the callipygian ideal
A thin strip of leather; often used to lash things together.

Origin

From Middle English thong, thwong, thwang, from Old English þwong, þwang (“thong, band, strap, cord, strip of leather; phylactery”), from Proto-West Germanic *þwangi, from Proto-Germanic *þwangiz, *þwanguz (“coercion, constraint, band, clamp, strap”), from Proto-Indo-European *twenk- (“to squeeze, press, pressure”). Cognate with Scots thwang, thwayng, thang (“thong”), Middle Low German dwenge (“clamp, jaws, steel-trap”), German Zwinge (“vise, clamp”), Danish tvinge (“clamp”), dialectal Norwegian tveng (“shoestrap, shoelace”), Swedish tving (“clamp”), Icelandic þvengur (“strap, thong, latchet”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word