Crossword Dictionary

THING

thing - n 
an entity that is not named specifically; "I couldn't tell what the thing was" 
any attribute or quality considered as having its own existence; "the thing I like about her is ..." 

wordplays

Synonyms

anything, business, concept, concern, element, everything, fact, information, item, material, matter, object, part, person, phenomenon, piece, point, situation, stuff, subject, word, affair, apparatus

thesaurus

Examples

But he can't wiz a single thing if he hasn't the tools and machinery to work with.

If the Cossacks did not capture Napoleon then, what saved him was the very thing that was destroying the French army, the booty on which the Cossacks fell.

It was the most comical shapeless thing, this improvised doll, with no nose, mouth, ears or eyes--nothing that even the imagination of a child could convert into a face.

yourdictionary

Etymology

Old English þing "meeting, assembly, council, discussion," later "entity, being, matter" (subject of deliberation in an assembly), also "act, deed, event, material object, body, being, creature," from Proto-Germanic *thinga- "assembly" (source also of Old Frisian thing "assembly, council, suit, matter, thing," Middle Dutch dinc "court-day, suit, plea, concern, affair, thing," Dutch ding "thing," Old High German ding "public assembly for judgment and business, lawsuit," German Ding "affair, matter, thing," Old Norse þing "public assembly"). The Germanic word is perhaps literally "appointed time," from a PIE *tenk- (1), from root *ten- "stretch," perhaps on notion of "stretch of time for a meeting or assembly."

etymonline